Lucknow, India – In a significant development, a CBI court in Lucknow, India, sentenced Anand Prakash Tiwari to life imprisonment for the murders of two chief medical officers in Uttar Pradesh which occurred 13 years ago. Tiwari’s actions, which led to the unraveling of the National Rural Health Mission scam and the downfall of the then Mayawati-led BSP government, were deemed as pivotal in the case.
Tiwari was found guilty of shooting and killing Dr. V K Arya in Lucknow’s Vikas Nagar in October 2010, and Dr. B P Singh in Gomtinagar in April 2011. The court handed down concurrent life sentences for both murders under Section 302 of the IPC and the Arms Act. Additionally, Tiwari was fined Rs 58,000 for his crimes.
The court acquitted two other accused individuals, Ram Krishna Verma and Vinod Sharma, due to a lack of evidence in a verdict issued on June 28. They were required to furnish sureties of Rs 1 lakh each under Section 437A of the CrPC to ensure their appearance should their acquittal be appealed.
The murders, orchestrated by then Lucknow deputy CMO Dr. Y S Sachan, were part of a cover-up for the scam, as per the CBI chargesheet. Sachan, who also met a mysterious death in 2011, had allegedly hired Tiwari and Sharma through Verma to carry out the killings, according to prosecution.
The investigation into the murders was taken over by the CBI following orders from the Allahabad High Court, pointing towards a wider conspiracy at play. The convictions serve as a reminder of the significance of pursuing justice even years after the crimes were committed, shedding light on the complex web of corruption within the healthcare system.