Vyapam scam: CBI registers preliminary inquiry into nine deaths

The petitions had come up for hearing earlier before the same bench during the hearing on Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or its Hindi acronym Vyapam, but were put off for a separate hearing. The body of Namrata, a second-year MBBS student of Indore city’s Mahatma Gandhi Medical College on January 7, 2012, was found on Shivpura-Bherupur rail track in Ujjain district, police sources said.

The third case pertains to alleged irregularities during an examination conducted by Vyapam in 2010 in which the state police had named four accused.

The Vyapam scam, simmering for almost a decade, exploded before the Indian public after Singh’s death.

It would be appropriate if the CBI investigated the matter, counsel Prashant Bhushan appearing for petitioner Anand Rai told the court adding that it would make no sense if the admission scam involving 42 percent state-quota seats was to be investigated separately.

On Friday, CBI registered a case under section 302 (murder) to probe the death of Damor, who allegedly took illegal route to gain admission in Gwalior medical college.

They said the PE has been registered to examine whether these deaths were fallout of the Vyapam Scam or not. Seven more accused were included by the Special Task Force in this case.

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. “For the past two years I have been saying that she was murdered”. More than 2000 people have so far been arrested in connection with the scam, including the State’s former education minister Laxmikant Sharma, several Vyapam officials, bureaucrats, middlemen, students and their parents. But the police kept insisting that it was a case of suicide.

Her family and activists raised questions over the manner in which the case was closed while pointing out that the first autopsy report said the woman died because of “violent asphyxia as a result of smothering”, which indicated it was a murder.

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. Despite repeated attempts by MAIL TODAY, Badkur refused to comment.