Lucknow: In a major relief to some former top policemen, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has stayed the summons issued to them by the CBI to appear before it.
Former Director General of Police (DGP) Karmveer Singh, ex-ADGP V.K. Gupta as well as the then Lucknow jailor Bhim Sen Mukund were summoned in connection with custodial death of the then deputy Chief Medical Office (CMO) Dr Y.S. Sachan in 2011.
The bench of Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava passed the order on the petitions moved individually by Gupta, Singh and Mukund.
The bench considered CBI counsel Anurag Kumar Singh’s argument that the premier investigating agency had conducted the probe meticulously and having found that the death of Dr Sachan was suicidal, it had rightly submitted closure report twice.
The court also noted that no prosecution sanction was obtained prior to summoning the petitioners as it was necessary because the petitioners were performing their duty in discharge of their official work.
Hearing a plea of Sachan’s wife Malti Sachan, a special judicial magistrate, CBI, had on July 7 summoned key police and jail officials to appear before it in connection with the deputy CMO’s death.
The CBI court had observed that based on judicial inquiry report, autopsy, medical experts’ opinion, statement of witnesses during the course of the CBI investigation, adequate material was available on record for making the accused stand on trial for the offences of murder and hatching conspiracy to eliminate Dr Sachan.
The court also summoned the then Lucknow jailor B.S. Mukund, deputy jailor Sunil Kumar Singh, pradhan Bandi rakshak Babu Ram Dubey and bandi rakshak Pahindra Singh.
It may be recalled that Dr Sachan was arrested in connection with the embezzlement of NRHM funds and was in jail when the police charged him with plotting the murders of his two seniors.
Dr Sachan was found dead in a deserted section of Lucknow jail on June 22, 2011 — a day before he had to appear in court to record his statement in connection with the two murders and his role in the embezzlement of funds.
The FIR of his death was lodged with the Gosaiganj police station on June 26, 2011 against unknown persons.
The judicial inquiry report prepared on July 11, 2011 declared Dr Sachan’s death to be a murder.
Later, the high court handed over the probe to the CBI on July 14, 2011.
After investigation, the CBI declared Dr Sachan’s death as a case of suicide and filed a closure report on September 27, 2012.
Dr Sachan’s wife Malti challenged the closure report. The CBI court accepted her protest application and directed the CBI to investigate further into the case.
–IANS