Whistleblower shifted; STF, SIT to file chargesheets

Bhopal/New Delhi, July 20

A whistleblower in Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam scam was transferred on Monday even as the Supreme Court allowed the state’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) and Special Task Force (STF) to continue to file charge sheets in the massive admission and recruitment fraud until the Central Bureau of Investigation took over all cases related to the scam.

Days after Anand Rai, a government doctor and one of the whistle blowers in the scam, lodged a complaint with the CBI against senior BJP leader and former Union minister Vikram Verma, he was transferred from Indore to a hospital in Dhar district.

Rai accused Verma of exerting his influence to get his daughter who was pursuing MBBS course in Santosh Medical College in Ghaziabad transferred to Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.

Rai, who was on deputation to the health department's training institute in Indore, said he would challenge his transfer in court.

Rai was transferred on Monday. His wife, also a doctor, was shifted from civil hospital in Mhow in Indore to Ujjain district hospital last month.

The government, however, has insisted it was a “routine” transfer.

"Rai was posted in Dhar but was attached to the facility in Indore. The government has ended all such attachments. It is a routine thing," Health Commissioner Pankaj Agarwal said.

The whistle blower, however, has claimed he was "hounded" for lodging a complaint against Verma.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, which had on July 9 ordered a CBI probe in the scandal, accepted the central agency's prayer to permit the STF and SIT of Madhya Pradesh, which were previously investigating the case, to file charge sheets in cases in which investigations are complete.

On July 16, the CBI had approached the apex court claiming that the transfer of over 180 cases in the massive scam would take time and that the SIT and the STF should be allowed to file charge sheets until it took over.

"Otherwise, the accused will get statutory bail on account of default of non-filing of charge sheets within stipulated time period," the probe agency had said.

Apart from the fraud in conduct of various examinations for appointment to various government posts and admissions to professional institutions by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), also known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam, the CBI is also investigating cases of mysterious deaths of people associated with the scandal.

While the government’s figure stands at 25 deaths so far, the Congress has claimed the number is 49.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Assembly’s Monsoon Session had a stormy start when the Opposition, Congress, demanded time to pay tributes to people who have been associated with the case and have mysteriously died — what the Congress called "Vyapam Shaheed" — leading to noisy scenes.

Chaos began when the Leader of Opposition, Satyadev Katare, mentioned two people — Akshay Singh and Namrata Damor, both of who were associated with the case and were found mysteriously dead recently — while among the leaders who died during the inter-session period.

Damor, an MBBS student and suspected beneficiary of the scam, was found dead near the railway tracks. While police opened the investigation assuming it was a murder, they concluded the death was accidental. 

Akshay Singh, a journalist with TV today group who had been covering the case, died recently, minutes after interviewing Damor’s parents.

Mention of the two names in the list of tributes sparked off a heated debated in the assembly. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra raised a point of order, contending a member had to obtain permission of the Speaker before raising an issue that was not part of the listed business of the House.

Rejecting his contention, several members from the opposition began citing cases of deaths of people linked to the scam. — PTI