Yogi recommends CBI probe into suicide of ATS officer

The Yogi Adityanath government late on Wednesday recommended a CBI probe into the alleged suicide of senior Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad Officer Rajesh Sahni.

Posted as an Additional Superintendent of Police of the UP Anti-Terror Squad, Rajesh Sahni allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself on the temple on Tuesday afternoon in his office with his official weapon.

UP information department principal secretary Awanish Awasthi confirmed that the Chief Minister had "decided to recommend" a CBI probe into the death of the officer and said a recommendation would be sent to the government of India.

Mr. Adityanath's decision came after a meeting with Principal Secretary Home Arvind Kumar and DGP UP O.P. Singh who briefed him about the "unfortunate death" of the officer, a government spokesperson said.

Mr. Adityanath directed that the entire incident and cause of death be investigated by the CBI immediately, the government said.

The DGP had a few hours earlier entrusted ADG Lucknow zone Rajeev Krishna to probe the "entire circumstances" of the death of Mr. Sahni.

Earlier in the day members of the UP Provincial Police Service Association held a meeting here and demanded that an FIR be lodged in the case and it be probed by the CBI.

Born in 1969 in Patna, Mr. Sahni was a 1992-batch PPS officer. He had an M.A. degree in political science and had joined the ATS in 2014.

Though he was on leave till the first week of June, Mr. Sahni landed up at the UP ATS headquarters in Gomti Nagar in Lucknow on Tuesday. After a few moments, he summoned his driver and asked him to bring his service revolver which was allegedly used by him to shot himself, as per UP police.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot.

The weapon has been sent for forensic investigation.

Last week, Mr. Sahni had led the ATS team that arrested an alleged ISI spy in Uttarakhand's Pitoragarh. Identified as Ramesh Singh, the suspect, was nabbed on charges of allegedly gathering sensitive information for the Pakistani agency while working as a domestic help at the residence of an Indian diplomat in Islamabad.