NRHM scam: UP police in hurry to turn murder into suicide?

Lucknow, Feb 24: The NRHM scam seem to be getting murkier with every passing day, when a suicide note was found that was apparently written by Mahendra Sharma who was found dead in his one-room residence in Pansganwa, in Lakhimpur. The curious fact is that it took eight days for the police to find the letter that was believed to be lying in one of the pockets of a jacket worn by Sharma at the time of his death.

The police suspect that the letter was written by Sharma himself who was a health department clerk linked to the NRHM scam. The sixth death that is related to the scam, the matter has now taken a strange turn. The postmortem report states that Sharma was ‘smothered to death’ and it looks close to impossible for somebody to smother himself to death. The police are now doing all it can to turn this case into a suicide.

The police claim that the suicide note was dated Feb 7, the same date the clerk went missing. They however have no answers on being asked why it took them so long (8 days) to produce the suicide note and why they did not mention the suicide note when the body was found.

The police also feigned innocence on enquiries on the five days that went past between the day the suicide note was written (Feb 7) and Sharma ending his life. As per the postmortem report, Sharma is understood to have died three days before his body was found.

Lakhimpur SP Amit Chandra has been quoted as saying, “In the suicide note, Sharma has said that he is ending his life because he was being harassed with frequent transfers by the MO, Dr J.P. Bhargava, and three others (clerk Rajesh Hans, medical superintendent S.C. Gupta and deputy CMO Balbir Singh). He has written that he was asked to pay Rs 2,000 for cancellation of his first transfer and then Rs 50,000 to cancel his second transfer.”

The note is being sent to a handwriting expert for examination and the clerk’s clothes are being sent for forensic examination.

OneIndia News