Even as the Special Task Force probing the Vyapam scam registered an FIR against Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, the Congress intensified its attack on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with a new set of allegations claiming the CM’s direct involvement in the scam.
AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday submitted a pen drive to the Special Investigation Team, purportedly containing additional evidence relating to the alleged involvement of Mr. Chouhan.
Along with the pen drive, Mr. Singh also submitted some mobile phone numbers of persons accused in the scam “for detailed analysis,” along with another set of phone numbers that he claimed would show up on the IMEI analysis of the numbers of the accused.
“The call detail record and the SMS sent and received between these numbers would corroborate that the CM’s office, CM and CM’s wife were in direct touch for facilitating illegal admissions/recruitment through Vyapam,” he said in a letter to the SIT.
The BJP rubbished Mr. Singh’s allegations, calling them politically motivated.
“He is infamous for putting out fabricated facts and false information to malign people. It is the work of the Congress’ dirty tricks department of which he is the head,” senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh Hitesh Bajpai told The Hindu.
Earlier in the day, the Special Task Force registered an FIR against Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, Raj Bhavan sources confirmed to The Hindu. Mr. Yadav was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and various Sections of the IPC including 420 (forgery) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), the sources said.
Mr. Yadav had allegedly recommended five candidates for recruitment as forest guards to the top officials of the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board which conducted the examination, Press Trust of India reported. However, despite the FIR being registered, Mr. Yadav had not tendered his resignation till the time of writing this report.
(With inputs from P. Sunderarajan in Bhopal)
