Namrata Damor, an accused in the Vyapam scam, was found dead on railway tracks in 2012
The death of a 19-year-old medical student linked to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh has been brought back into focus after a TV journalist died last weekend minutes after interviewing her father.
Namrata Damor, an accused in the scam, was found dead on railway tracks in Ujjain in January, 2012. When the police filed a closure report in 2014, they called it a suicide. New demands for a reinvestigation into the death are pivoted on an autopsy report that had said she had been strangled.
The report dated January 9, 2012, signed by three doctors, said Namrata died because of "violent asphyxia as a result of smothering" and the findings suggested "homicidal" death. But the police, after an investigation, said the student had fallen off a train.
"We investigated her death and recreated the crime scene with forensic experts. We found nothing that suggested murder. If there is new evidence we can investigate again but so far there is nothing," said senior police officer Manohar Varma.
Namrata, a second year medical student, was allegedly among the candidates who cleared the medical entrance test through unfair means. Lakhs of candidates allegedly paid bribes to politicians and bureaucrats who allowed imposters to take exams conducted by the Vyapam board for medical and engineering colleges as well as government jobs.
Journalist Akshay Singh was speaking to Namrata's father at her home in Jhabua on Saturday when he started frothing at the mouth and collapsed. Doctors said he had died of a heart attack, but after protests by Mr Singh's family, Delhi's AIIMS hospital is investigating how he died.
There have been 35 deaths linked to the scam since 2012; the causes range from road accidents to suicides, alcohol poisoning and heart attacks.
On Tuesday, Justice Chandresh Bhushan, who is leading the investigations into the scam, told NDTV: "I won't call these deaths 'mysterious' but 'abnormal'." But he said so far, the police's Special Task Force, which is probing the scandal, has not found any reason to believe there is a cover-up attempt behind the deaths.
Read Namrata Damor's Autopsy Report, Which Says She Died Of "violent Asphyxia":