IANS/New Delhi
The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress yesterday demanded that the Supreme Court monitor a probe into the deaths of more than 40 people connected with the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.
The admission and recruitment racket in the Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal (Vyapam - the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board) allegedly involves politicians, officials and businessmen.
The latest victims were a journalist covering the scam and the dean of a medical college in the central state assisting the police probing the case. Both died under mysterious circumstances.
“It is sad that one of our journalist friends has died while reporting the Vyapam scam,” AAP spokesman Dilip Pandey said. “Vyapam is no longer a scam; it has become a ‘narsanhar’ (massacre).”
He said the Supreme Court should oversee the probe presently being conducted by a Special Investigation Team.
Pandey also said that both Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Governor Ram Naresh Yadav should be sacked.
“How can we expect a fair probe from the governor (who is overseeing the Special Investigating Team) when his own name is in the FIR of the Vyapam scam?” asked the AAP leader.
The AAP reaction followed Saturday’s death of the New Delhi-based television reporter, Akshay Singh, in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district while he was covering the story.
Pandey said that the AAP would stand by the journalist’s family, while also intensifying its agitation against the central and Madhya Pradesh governments. “AAP MPs will raise this matter in parliament in its monsoon session starting from July 21,” he said.
Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the SIT was not doing enough to unearth the truth and the case should now be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Congress also accused the Madhya Pradesh chief minister of “misleading the people and parroting his old line” on the demand to get the case investigated by an impartial investigative agency.
More than 40 people associated with the scam have died since 2013 - either in mysterious circumstances or have committed suicides.
“We want the truth to come out. Justice should prevail. We all must join our heads and hands so that justice is served to the victims,” Surjewala said.
Arun Sharma, the dean of a medical college in Madhya Pradesh, was yesterday found dead in a hotel
room in New Delhi, police said.
His body was found at Uppal Hotel near the Indira Gandhi International Airport. He was on his way to Tripura as a member of an inspection team of the Medical Council of India.
Sharma, 64, whose college is in Jabalpur, was assisting the SIT probing the recruitment scam by providing documents on fake medical entrance examinees in the state-run college, police said.
Delhi police declined to comment on Sharma’s death. “We have contacted his son. He said his father was a sugar patient. The family is on its way to Delhi,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police R A Sanjeev.
Meanwhile, Pakshi Singh, the sister of the television reporter has requested that the viscera samples of her brother be sent to Delhi for test.
In a letter addressed to the Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Pakshi said: “As you know, he died in mysterious circumstances. I request you to get examined his viscera outside Madhya Pradesh, preferably at AIIMS Delhi for free and fair investigation.”
India Today Group, for which the journalist worked, also demanded that the viscera samples be sent outside Madhya Pradesh.
On Saturday, Akshay Singh was in Meghnagar in Jhabua district to talk to the family members of scam-accused Namrata Damor who too was found dead under mysterious circumstances.
Jhabua Superintendent of Police Abid Khan said Akshay Singh and two colleagues interviewed the family for around an hour after which the journalist suddenly fell ill.
He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead.
The most high-profile death linked to the scam was that of Shailesh Yadav, son of the Madhya Pradesh governor. Shailesh, 50, was found dead at his father’s residence in the Uttar Pradesh capital on March 25.
