Shivraj doesn’t blink, will seek CBI probe in SC too
9 July 2015 12:38 AM GMT
“The Congress and the opposition cannot tolerate the path of progress under me in Madhya Pradesh. They have been demanding my resignation from the beginning. They are bringing disrepute to Madhya Pradesh,” he told reporters here when he was asked about the demand for his resignation.
Chauhan, who is in the capital for discussions with party leaders, said the matter relating to Vyapam scam would be coming up before the Supreme Court on Thursday.
“We requested the (Madhya Pradesh) High Court that the probe should be done by CBI. The matter is likely to come up before the Supreme Court on Thursday. We will make the same prayer there too,” Chauhan said.
Chouhan said they had full faith in the Supreme Court and High Court and in a democracy the rulers should be servants of the public and be beyond doubt.
“That is why on Tuesday I sent a request to the High Court for a thorough CBI probe into the Vyapam matter under the High Court-monitored STF,” he said.
The chief minister said <g data-gr-id="40">death</g> of people related to the scam was unfortunate and he was confident that <g data-gr-id="41">truth</g> would come out in a CBI probe.
To a query on why the probe has not covered the state Governor, he said the High Court has held that he was a constitutional authority, implying he enjoyed immunity.
Chouhan attacked the Congress and other opposition parties saying they were indulging in a reckless propaganda of bringing disrepute to the state.
The onus for ordering a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam now rests with Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday deferred hearing on a state government’s plea for an inquiry by the central agency, saying the apex court would hear similar petitions on Thursday.
As the MP High Court deferred the hearing till July 20, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was in Delhi, said his government will request the Supreme Court for a CBI inquiry into the scandal which, according to Congress, has claimed 49 lives so far.
Meanwhile, the massive admission and recruitment scam that has seriously dented the state’s BJP government’s public image, took another murky turn with the post mortem report of a female MBBS student, a suspect in the case whose body was found beside railway tracks in Ujjain in 2012, maintaining it was a “homicidal” death caused by “violent <g data-gr-id="46">axphyxia</g>”.
As the report came into the public domain for the first time at the height of the controversy over a string of mysterious deaths of people associated with Vyapam, including five over the past week, the Madhya Pradesh police decided to reopen the case and launch fresh investigation.
Police had registered a case of murder following Amrita <g data-gr-id="39">Damor’s</g> death but later closed it describing it as an “accident”. The case that had faded from public memory with <g data-gr-id="53">time,</g> had come into focus last week when television journalist Akshay Singh died soon after interviewing her parents.
A day after the Chouhan government buckled under heightened all round pressure and moved the High Court seeking a CBI probe, the matter came up before a division bench headed by Chief Justice <g data-gr-id="50">A M</g> Khankilwar which deferred the hearing till July 20.
Additional Advocate General P <g data-gr-id="43">Kaurav</g> said the state government had in its plea contended that though the Special Task Force of MP police was “efficiently” investigating the scam, it wants a CBI inquiry following the “recent unfortunate incidents”.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday agreed to hear on Thursday the plea of Congress leader Digvijay Singh and three whistle-blowers -- Ashish Chaturvedi, Anand Rai and Prashant Pandey -- seeking a CBI probe into the scam.
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