Thaindian News

Lucknow, June 23 (IANS) Even as a post-mortem report carried several indicators of foul play, the Uttar Pradesh government Thursday stuck to its theory that jailed deputy chief medical officer Y.S. Sachan committed suicide.

Sachan, the prime accused in chief medical officer (CMO) family welfare B.P. Singh’s murder, was found dead in mysterious circumstances inside a Lucknow district jail toilet Wednesday evening.

His post-mortem report mentioned “excessive bleeding” as the cause of death and talked about nine wounds on the doctor’s body, yet the officials rule out murder.

“As per the post-mortem report, eight of the nine wounds on Sachan’s body were caused by a sharp-edged blade, while one was a mark left around his neck,” Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told a press conference here in the evening.

He said “while two wounds were found on his neck, two each were on the right and left elbows, one on the left thigh and one on his wrist”.

The cabinet secretary sought to suggest that Sachan first tried to strangulate himself using his own belt but when that failed, he used a blade to cut his veins at different places following which he bled to death.

“Prima facie, it is a case of suicide, but I would not like to draw any definite conclusion, since a judicial probe is already underway,” he said.

The government is also in no mood to concede his family’s demand for handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“There is no reason why we should transfer the investigation to any other agency including the CBI, when the state police have already arrested the key suspects, who have confessed their crime,” he said.

Sachan’s elder brother R.K. Sachan said: “We are just not satisfied with the state government’s investigations and we have decided not to cremate the body until our demand for a CBI probe is conceded.”

Dismissing the opposition parties’ demand for a CBI inquiry, the cabinet secretary said: “Chief minister (Mayawati) can see a political design of certain opposition parties to serve their own political ends through this incident .”

Claiming that the chief minister had given stern instructions to maintain complete transparency in the investigations, he said “that was the reason we not only got the post-mortem carried out by an independent team of five doctors but also got it videographed.”

He pointed out that “Sachan never applied for bail before any higher court once his bail plea was rejected by the lower court… he was to be produced before a court on June 23 when he was to be handed over on remand to police.”