The Central Bureau of Investigation plans to club all the major cases pertaining to the Vyapam scam to facilitate expeditious probe into the racket in which about 2,500 persons stand accused.
“In the Saradha chit-fund scam, the agency clubbed all the cases involving the same set of accused persons registered in different States. It enabled a thorough probe. Efforts are under way to ascertain which among the Vyapam cases can be bundled into one,” said a CBI official.
The agency is yet to decide whether a separate case has to be registered to probe the deaths allegedly linked to the scam.
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Though the CBI has set up a 40-member team to probe the scam, the agency is yet to formally register cases on the basis of the FIRs lodged by the Madhya Pradesh police.
The State’s Special Task Force (STF) has registered 45 cases of illegal admissions in higher educational institutions and 10 cases of recruitments on the recommendations of influential people. It has filed charge-sheets in about 28 cases.
Besides, over a hundred cases alleging irregularities in admissions and recruitments through Vyapam were registered at various police stations in Madhya Pradesh.
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“CBI officials held a meeting with the STF officers in Bhopal today [Monday] to discuss the modalities for taking over the cases. Each case will have to be examined first,” said the official.
According to legal experts, the clubbing of Vyapam cases will not impact the ongoing Enforcement Directorate probe into the money generated through the scam.