India’s highest court has ordered the nation’s most powerful investigation agency to investigate a massive college admission and government job recruitment scandal linked to dozens of suspicious deaths. He used the opportunity to defend his government and also to meet the family of journalist Akshay Singh, who had died under mysterious circumstances in the state while covering the scam.
Advertisement
The reason why Vyapam – acronym for Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal – has caught the headlines is the sheer number of deaths associated with it, leaving one with the suspicion that those who knew too much needed to be eliminated to avoid implicating the higher-ups. The questions raised on the Madhya Pradesh authorities made it crucial that the CBI investigates this case. “I want that the truth should come out and we have sent the viscera samples to AIIIMS in Delhi”, he said.
“We welcome the Supreme Court decision”.
He said the agency was short of investigators because many of its sleuths were probing the Saradha and coal-allocation cases.
He added that the Chief Minister in his letter to the High Court has not talked of the deaths in the case.
“The learned Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi clearly enunciated before the Supreme Court the state government’s stand that it desires a CBI probe”.
Chouhan had on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to order a CBI probe into the Vyapam – the Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or Professional Examination Board – recruitment scam.
While dealing with the matter connected to the Governor, the bench said it was only issuing notice which would be returnable after four weeks time. The Supreme Court by transferring the case to CBI has expressed its dissatisfaction in the scam investigations so far.
Speaking to News Nation, he said, “Country’s faith in judiciary has increased. We are thankful to the Supreme Court“, he told reporters in Delhi soon after the verdict.
Mr Singh said the CBI should turn all jailed young medical and other students in the Vyapam case as government witnesses to expose large cartel of corrupt politicians, power brokers and other criminals including officials. He said there would have been no probe had he wished so but he wanted the anomalies to be detected and fixed.
Advertisement
Attacking Congress, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, “Let the CBI probe take place and Congress should not do politics on it any more”.
