Vyapam scam: CBI registers preliminary inquiry into 9 deaths

The second case relates to alleged illegalities in the Pre-Medical Test of 2010 in which only one person has been named as an accused.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, fixed the plea of the probe agency for hearing on July 20 and asked CBI to serve the copy of the application to the parties concerned.

The Madhya Pradesh police initially registered a murder case, but then closed the investigations stating that it was a “death by accident”. The STF handed over documents related to the investigation to the investigating agency. “The probe will be conducted with utmost sincerity and to the best of our capability”.

The Gwalior-Chambal region of the state is where most of the 45 deaths related to the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) or the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), have occurred over the past few years.

Madhya Pradesh Backward Class Commission member and BJP leader Gulab Singh Kirar, who is named as an accused along with his son in the Vyapam scam, has been suspended by the party following registration of fresh FIR against him by the CBI. Namrata, a student of MGM Medical College in Indore, was a suspect in the Vyapam scam and charged with using unfair means to clear her entrance exam. Within days of her questioning, she was found dead on a railway track on January 7, 2012.

The Aaj Tak journalist had died suddenly after interviewing Namrata’s father in Meghnagar area of Jhabua as part of his investigations into the scam.

However, the post mortem report said that she had died because of “violent asphyxia as a result of smothering”, with the findings suggesting homicide.

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued another notice to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh, formally seeking its views on two other petitions demanding Central Bureau of Investigation probe into irregularities in admissions to private medical colleges under separate examinations, in which also the scam-hit Vyapam is alleged to have played a role.

Earlier the MP Police had claimed that Namrata committed suicide as she was suffering from depression after her name figured in the Vyapam scam.

The CBI had already lodged five FIRs on Wednesday and with today?s five FIRs, the number had gone up to 10 thus far. He had earlier visited Gwalior to talk to some people, allegedly associated with the scam.