Vyapam scam will haunt BJP government in Madhya Pradesh

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has been probing the multilayered Vyapam or recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh, has filed a charge sheet in a special court stating that it did not find any evidence of tampering in the hard disk recovered from the principal accused, Nitin Mohindra.

Congress leaders led by Digvijaya Singh had, on the basis of information provided by "whistleblower" Prashant Pandey, claimed that the hard disk had been tampered with. The tampering, they said, was done with the intention to delete the name of the CM to shield him from the probe. The CBI had earlier told the Supreme Court the same and has now submitted a charge sheet in the special court where the case is being heard.

Though the CBI’s stand was known, the development has brought back focus on the scam, leading to further political implications.

The state government, led by the CM, was clearly not keen on a CBI probe but had handed the case over under media pressure. The Congress had all along been demanding a CBI probe. Now that the CBI probe is not progressing as expected by the Congress, the party has been attacking the agency itself.

On Wednesday, the party’s legal team, led by Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, called the agency compromised and said that they would challenge its findings in court. The BJP, on the other hand, is upbeat and has, in fact, demanded that cases be registered against Prashant Pandey and Digvijaya Singh. The CBI is not keen on it because there is no precedent of booking the complainants in cases.

Prima facie, ever since the CBI took over the probe, the number of accused, including high-profile ones like former minister Laxmikant Sharma have secured bail. In public perception, the STF of the state police that had been probing the matter earlier seemed to be much tougher on the accused.

A reason being extended for many accused securing bail is that the CBI’s investigation is more professional and the agency is not going out of its way to attempt to book people — something the STF was accused of — but is pursuing cases on merit. In instances where there is lack of evidence, accused are securing bail.

A few weeks back, in the cases of deaths related to Vyapam that were being probed by the agency, it was found that some of the booked had died much before registration of cases against them. Whatever may be the reasons for it, the general perception building in the state is that the CBI is not quite tough.

Since the scam involves compromise of merit, it is also an emotive issue among people, especially parents of children taking competitive exams. Unless justice is not only done, but is seen to be done, Vyapam and by extension the state government under which it functions, may never regain its credibility.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

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