Whistle-blower shifted; SC allows STF, SIT to file charge-sheets
21 July 2015 6:42 AM IST
A whistle-blower in Madhya Pradesh’s Vyapam scam was transferred even as the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the SIT and Special Task Force (STF) of the state to file charge-sheets in the massive admission and recruitment fraud till all cases are transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Days after Anand Rai, a government doctor and one of the whistle-blowers in the scam, lodged a complaint with the CBI against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union minister Vikram Verma, he was transferred from Indore to a hospital in Dhar district.
Rai had alleged in his complaint that Verma used his influence to get his daughter, pursuing MBBS course in Santosh Medical College in Ghaziabad, transferred to Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.
Rai, who was on deputation to the health department’s training institute in Indore, was transferred on Sunday. His wife, also a doctor, was shifted from civil hospital in Mhow in Indore to Ujjain district hospital last month.
Rai said he would challenge his transfer in court, but the government insisted it was a “routine” thing.
“Rai was posted in Dhar but was attached to the facility in Indore. The government has ended all such attachments. It is a routine thing,” Health Commissioner Pankaj Agarwal said.
The whistle-blower, however, said he was being “hounded”. “I am being hounded for lodging a complaint against Verma on July 17 and exposing the Vyapam scam. People involved in the wrongdoings are running the state,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, which had on July 9 ordered a CBI probe in the scandal, accepted the central agency’s plea to permit the STF and SIT of Madhya Pradesh to file charge-sheets in cases where investigation has been completed.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Arun Kumar Mishra and Amitava Roy fixed July 24 for further hearing of the application. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, sought time to file reply to the CBI’s plea.
The CBI had on July 16 approached the Apex Court with the plea, contending since transfer of more than 185 Vyapam scam cases from SIT to CBI will take time the state investigating agencies be allowed to file charge sheets in cases where the probe has been completed.
“Otherwise, the accused will get statutory bail on account of default of non-filing of charge sheets within stipulated time period,” the probe agency had said.
Apart from the fraud in conduct of various examinations for appointment to various government posts and admissions to professional institutions by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), also known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam, the CBI is also investigating cases of mysterious deaths of people related to the scandal.
Congress has claimed 49 people associated with the scam have died mysteriously or in accidents and suicides, while the state government has put the figure at 25.
Uproar was witnessed in the MP Assembly when Leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare, while paying tributes to leaders who had died during the inter-session period, mentioned the mysterious deaths of Akshay Singh and Namrata Damor.
Damor, an MBBS student and suspected beneficiary of the scam, was found dead near the railway tracks. Police had first probed the case from the angle of murder but closed it after concluding it was an accidental death. Akshay Singh, a journalist with TV today group died recently minutes after interviewing her parents.
MP Assembly adjourned as Oppn tries to condole Vyapam
The opening day of MP Assembly’s Monsoon session was adjourned for the day on Monday as Opposition members tried to pay respect to TV journalist Akshay Singh and MBBS student Namrata Damor, who died under mysterious circumstances after the Vyapam scam was exposed. The House had assembled for the first day of the 12-day session.
CBI registers inquiry into pharmacist’s death
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a preliminary inquiry into the mysterious death of a pharmacist, Vijay Singh Patel, who was facing STF probe into Vyapam scam. CBI sources said Patel, an “alleged racketeer” out on bail, was found dead in a room of a lodge in Kanker, Chhattisgarh on April 28. Singh was allegedly linked to several high-profile suspects in the case and was being probed by the STF for his role in three cases. It is believed that he had gone Kanker to meet his wife after which became untraceable. His body was found in a lodge allegedly run by a member of ruling party. CBI says the inquiry was being done to ascertain if the death was related to the alleged scam or not.
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