Two more persons accused in the infamous 'Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board' scam died in highly suspicious circumstances, taking the total number of deaths of those accused in the scam to 43.
The two are veterinary officer, Narendra Tomar who was found dead in the high security Indore Jail allegedly of a heart attack and the other person is Dr. Rajendra Arya who died of a liver infection at a hospital in Gwalior.
The most high-profile death so far has been of Shailesh Yadav, son of Madhya Pradesh Governor, Ram Naresh Yadav, in what has come to be known as the ‘Vyapam Scam’.
Vyapam scam was a massive admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen.
Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court served notices to Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) and Medical Council of India (MCI) following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by parents of some students after reports that more than 300 ineligible candidates managed to get into the merit list.
Complaints of irregularities and crooked deals in pre-medical test (PMT) were surfacing since 2009 but in the year 2013, a major scam was unearthed involving several officials and politicians from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The kingpin of the impersonation racket Dr. Jagdish Sagar was arrested and subsequently several other influential people were arrested including ex-Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma, MPPEB’s exam controller Pankaj Trivedi, MPPEB’s system analysts Nitin Mahendra and Ajay Sen and state PMT’s examination in-charge C. K. Mishra.
As per some reports, it is the mother of all scandals and the biggest one to rock Madhya Pradesh. Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh police under the supervision of High Court is conducting the investigations.
Enforcement Directorate under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in March 2014, booked MPPEB’s exam controller Pankaj Trivedi along with 25 other accused including former Madhya Pradesh higher education minister Laxmikant Sharma and his former officer on special duty O.P. Shukla. 720 parents and students were booked and more than 129 politicians, officials and middlemen were arrested.
A report submitted by special investigation team (SIT) in the High Court revealed that around 40 people, in 25-30 age group, all accused in the scam have died under mysterious circumstances.
The deaths snapped the crucial linkages to kingpins, making it India's most notorious scam where so many accused lost their lives. Indore based Dr. Anand Rai and Gwalior based social activist Ashish Chaturvedi are the two main whistle blowers of this scam.
While Dr. Anand Rai blew the lid over this scam, Ashish Chaturvedi blew the whistle over involvement of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s relatives in the scam.
Despite a Whistle Blower’s Protection law in force, both of them face threat to their life and were denied police protection.
Ashish Chaturvedi has already suffered three attacks on his life including an abduction bid. And in a horrifying turn of events, the head of the SIT has approached the Court for protection citing a threat to his life.
Officials investigating the matter claimed that arrested accused named the people, who were already dead, a method used by organized crime syndicates to mislead the probe.
Even a child will not believe that the death of so many accused is coincidental. They are clearly being eliminated to cover all tracks. 43 people dead! And still the Madhya Pradesh government functions with impunity.
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