Pursuant to the Supreme Court directive, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday constituted a 40-member team for the investigation of all Vyapam scam-related cases.
“The CBI team will reach Bhopal on Monday and begin the process of taking over the investigation,” CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur said. Although the agency remained tight-lipped about the team’s composition, it is learnt that R.P. Agrawal, a 1986-batch IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, will spearhead the investigations in the scam and all death cases linked to it.
Several team members have been drawn from the CBI anti-corruption units in Madhya Pradesh.
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Earlier this week, the Supreme Court transferred all the criminal and death cases to the CBI for a “fair and impartial” probe, stating: “We will not allow the number of deaths to go up from 36 to 37 or 38. Not one more will die.”
Under the supervision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court-monitored Special Investigation Team, the State’s Special Task Force registered 55 cases of illegal admissions and recruitments through Vyapam.
Of these, 45 cases pertain to admissions in professional courses allegedly through impersonation and 10 relate to recruitment in government services on the alleged recommendation of influential people. The police arrested over 2,000 accused persons, mostly candidates and their parents, whereas 500 accused are still absconding.
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The court directed the Centre, the M.P. government and State Governor Ram Naresh Yadav to respond within four weeks why a High Court order dated May 5, 2015, quashing the FIR against the Governor linking him to the Vyapam scam, not be set aside. The Governor was accused of various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act.
Through their petitions, whistle-blowers Prashant Pandey, Anand Rai and Ashish Chaturvedi have sought a court-monitored CBI investigation into the scam.