UP govt recommends CBI probe in death of ATS officer Rajesh Sahni

The Uttar Pradesh government today recommended a CBI probe into the entire incident and cause of death of ATS officer Rajesh Sahani.

Principal Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with the principal secretary (home) and the state police chief where he was briefed about the death ofSahani.

"The chief minister directed the entire incident and the cause of death be enqired/investigated by the CBI. On his direction, a recommendation is being sent to the Centre," Awasthi said.

Earlier, DGP O P Singh had assigned an enquiry into the circumstances of the death of the officer to the additional director general of police, Lucknow Zone.

Rajesh Sahni, an additional superintendent of police (ASP) with the ATS, had allegedly committed suicide yesterday at his office at the ATS headquarters here. He had used a service weapon to shoot himself dead.

The last rites of Sahni were performed by his daughter at the Bhaisakund crematorium here in the presence of senior officers, including Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar and the DGP.

Demand for a probe into the alleged suicide was raised from several quarters, including on social media, following which the DGP had ordered the enquiry.

The 1992-batch Provincial Police Services (PPS) officer was involved in a recent ATS operation that led to the arrest of a suspected ISI agent, who worked at the house of an Indian diplomat in Pakistan, from Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district.

Ramesh Singh Kanyal, who was arrested from Pithoragarh's Didihat area, worked as a cook at the diplomat's residence in Islamabad from 2015-2017 and has confessed to his role in anti-national activities.

Sahni had also led the encounter of the self-radicalised operational head of an ISIS module in Haji Colony of Kakori, Lucknow, on March 7 last year.

He was with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for around two years before joining the UP ATS in July 2014.