“The prime minister should also break his silence and take action on this”.
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Corruption is hardly unusual in India.
Congress has claimed there have been 45 deaths in connection with the admission and recruitment scam since it broke out two years back. His death was officially described as suicide. “We ask them, ‘Why are so many dying in road accidents in this case?” There’s no evidence of foul play, but many Indians don’t know what to believe anymore.
“That he (Singh) should join the 40-plus people connected with the scam who have lost their lives speaks of the insidious forces at work and the state of law and order in the state”.
“The probe which is going on is under the vigilant eyes of the Jabalpur High Court and the Madhya Pradesh government has no role in it”, he said. This has deepened suspicions about a systematic elimination of people linked to the racket, with opposition parties demanding an independent CBI probe. His family told reporters that they suspected Tomar was murdered.
The death the following day of Sharma, a college dean from Madhya Pradesh who had been helping investigators, intensified the growing political storm surrounding the scandal. “He must be very upset about these deaths”, Uma Bharti said.
‘The truth behind the deaths must come out’
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Mr Chouhan said he respected “public opinion” and will send a request to the High Court in a letter to instruct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the scam. But critics said he hasn’t done enough. Police said the initial examination did not reveal anything “suspicious”. The state government accepts only 25 deaths to be linked with the scam. Its Digvijaya Singh is among four people whose appeal for a CBI inquiry will be heard on Thursday by the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press conference, Chouhan rejected the Congress charge of his involvement in the scam, terming it as “baseless”.
“I do not want to leave anybody in doubt about over our intention to clean the system and punish the guilty”, Mr Chouhan said in a statement posted on his Twitter account, after requesting a central investigation. In the past week, police said, one of those accused died after having chest pains in prison, another drowned in a village pond and a third died of a liver infection. But about 500 of them still haven’t been tracked down and arrested yet.
BJP sources said that by handing over the probe to the CBI, the state government was signalling that it is washing its hands of the case and its outcome. The case is as of now being researched by the State police’s exceptional team. Funds worth millions of dollars are reported to have been involved in the scheme. Because of this, the impression that comes across is that there are full attempts to suppress the case.
She was recruited in the police through an exam conducted by Vyapam, a board that holds tests for recruitment to government jobs and college admissions.
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Doctors are examining Singh’s body to see what led to the heart attack, news reports said.
