NRHM scam returns to haunt BSP

Lucknow : The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam that rocked the Mayawati government has returned to haunt the BSP.

The court of special judge, CBI, here has termed prima facie death of former deputy CMO Dr Y.S. Sachan as murder.

On June 26, 2011, Sachan had died under mysterious circumstances in Lucknow jail where he was lodged in a case related the NRHM scam.

The state government had gone overboard to term it as a case of suicide.

Samriddhi Mishra, special judicial magistrate, CBI court, passed the order on the plea of Malti Sachan, wife of late Dr Sachan.

The then DGP Karamveer Singh, additional DGP V.K. Gupta and IG, Lucknow zone, Subesh Kumar Singh, have been summoned by the court on August 8.

The court also summoned the then jailor of Lucknow prison B.S. Mukund, deputy jailor Sunil Kumar Singh, chief prisoner warden (bandi rakshak) Babu Ram Dubey and Bandi Rakshak Pahindra Singh as accused in the case on August 8 to present their view.

A judicial probe on July 11, 2011, had termed Sachan’s death as murder.

On July 14, 2011, Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court handed over the case to the CBI.

The CBI on September 27, 2012, had filed the closure report in the case terming Dr Sachan’s death as suicide.

Malti Sachan challenged the CBI’s closure report. The special CBI court accepted Malti Sachan’s application and directed the CBI to further probe the case.

However, the CBI again submitted the closure report in the case on August 9, 2017 but the special CBI court rejected the closure report on November 19, 2019.

During trial of the case, Malti Sachan presented several documents in court, including post-mortem report of her husband and opinion of medical experts.