The CBI team, which has been camping in Bhopal for the last two days, registered three cases in connection with the massive rigging of examinations for recruitment in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions, naming among others a member of Madhya Pradesh Backward Classess and Minorities Commission member and his son.
The premier investigating agency also launched a probe into the “mysterious” deaths of five persons associated with the scam.
As the agency got down to cracking the cases related to the scandal involving the Madhya Pradesh
Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), also known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam, Congress released a document purportedly showing Pradhan and some top BJP and RSS functionaries having received favours from a prime accused.
Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala released documents at a press conference in Delhi, based on information claimed to have been recovered from a pen drive seized from accused Sudhir Sharma by the Income Tax department.
Sharma, a mining baron considered close to the ruling establishment in MP, was alleged to have made “payments” also to Prabhat Jha, BJP National vice president, his two sons, Suresh Soni, RSS Joint General Secretary and BJP MP Anil Dave.
“Complicity of the entire BJP leadership with deep-rooted links to RSS in Vyapam scam is thus writ large. The only alternative is a Supreme Court-monitored CBI investigation after removing Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister,” they said.
Besides Chouhan, the Congress leaders also demanded the resignation of Pradhan, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister.
Pradhan, whose travel tickets were alleged to have been booked by Sharma, said he knew the
Vyapam accused as he was an ABVP activist but insisted it was the BJP office which bought tickets for him when he travelled for party work. “Not at all. No question,” he said when asked if his tickets had been booked by Sharma.
BJP secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said the Madhya Pradesh High Court-appointed SIT had probed these charges and given “clean chits”. “Now the CBI is looking into it. Let them investigate,” he said.
Jha, a Rajya Sabha MP, too denied the allegations, saying since he was entitled to air travel, the bill for which was footed by the House, there was no need for others to but tickets for him.
CBI to dig out Vyapam ghosts from 'Bhoot Bangla'
Tasked to probe the Vyapam scam and a string of "mysterious" deaths of people linked to it, CBI has been allotted a government bungalow that ironically goes by the name of 'Bhoot Bangla' (abode of the ghosts). "Almost all the formalities have been completed to allot the bungalow B-10 to CBI team which has come from New Delhi and is camping here to probe the Vyapam scam," Principal Secretary (Home) Basant Pratap Singh told a news agency. CBI authorities had met Madhya Pradesh officials on Tuesday to request for providing logistical support to its 40-member team constituted to probe the case. The bungalow located in the posh Professor's Colony, was discarded by MP politicians and officials. It currently houses the offices of a local intelligence unit. BJP Minister Laxman Singh Gaud used to live in the sprawling mansion before he died in a road accident on February 11, 2009.