A CBI team arrived here on Monday to take over investigation into the murky Vyapam scam even as Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah also landed in the Madhya Pradesh capital to hold consultations with senior party leaders to discuss the fallout of the scam on the government’s image.
A 40-member CBI team headed by Joint Director R.P. Agarwal came by train and immediately held discussions with Sudhir Sahi, head of the state police Special Task Force that had been investigating the case till now. According to sources, the CBI team will first decide on how many officers it needs to depute, or draft from other forces, to investigate the case. The STF had about 500 people on the job.
Mr. Agarwal, a 1986 batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer, is posted as Joint Director, anti-corruption department, at the CBI headquarters. A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu had, on July 9, transferred all Vyapam cases, including the related deaths, to the bureau. The agency must submit a report to the Supreme Court on July 24, when the court is likely to decide on whether it will monitor the case.
ADVERTISEMENT
The STF had been investigating the case since August 2013. In November last year, the Madhya Pradesh High Court constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under former High Court judge Chandresh Bhushan to supervise the investigation.
Meanwhile, Mr. Amit Shah arrived here in the morning and held a meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who has been in town since Saturday and party vice-president and in charge of party affairs in M.P., Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
BJP sources said the meeting of the three senior leaders had been scheduled in advance to review the party’s membership drive, Maha Jansampark Abhiyan.
ADVERTISEMENT
Amit Shah discusses strategy to counter campaign
The three senior leaders, BJP president Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and vice-president and in charge of party affairs in M.P., Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, on Monday also deliberated on strategy to counter a strong campaign mounted by the Opposition parties about the State government’s role in the Vyapam scam.
Mr. Shah has reportedly also asked Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to delay his planned Swabhiman Yatra — a march in which he had planned to go around the State telling people that it was he who first exposed the Vyapam scam and then did everything to bring those guilty to book. The Yatra is still tentatively scheduled from August 1 to 9.
BJP sources also said a decision was likely to be taken on Tuesday on the removal of Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, who has been named as an accused in the scam, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from a tour of Russia and former Soviet Union countries of Central Asia late on Monday evening. Despite the Supreme Court issuing him notice on a plea asking for his removal as Governor, Mr. Yadav has given no indication that he will step down voluntarily.
Mr. Yadav was named as an accused in an FIR filed by the State’s Special Investigation Team. The Madhya Pradesh HC, however, struck down his name due to the constitutional immunity governors enjoy.