Justice Chandresh Bhushan, who is supervising the inquiry into Vyapam scam, speaks to NDTV
New Delhi:
Whether 35 deaths were minted by the investigation of a scam that saw cash being traded for recruitment to government colleges and jobs must be re-examined by the Madhya Pradesh police, said Justice Chandresh Bhushan, who is supervising the inquiry.
"I won't call these deaths 'mysterious' but 'abnormal'" Justice Bhushan said in an exclusive interview today to NDTV. He said so far, the police's Special Task Force, which is probing the scandal, has not found any reason to believe that 35 people who have died since 2012 were the victims of a ruthless cover-up, as alleged by the opposition Congress. However, he underscored that the deaths have not been investigated by the Special Task Force, but by the local police in the areas where they occurred. Those who have died were accused, witnesses or questioned in the scam.
Justice Bhushan heads a three-member committee - a Special investigation Team (SIT) - appointed in 2013 to monitor the probe into the Vyapam scam, which has engulfed the government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who today for the first time said that the inquiry should be reassigned to the CBI.
In 2013, the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected the call for a CBI inquiry from the Congress, opting instead to place the police's inquiry under the scrutiny of Justice Bhushan.
Vyapam is the Hindi acronym for a state board that conducts tests for medical and engineering colleges as well as government jobs. Lakhs of candidates allegedly paid bribes to politicians and bureaucrats who allowed imposters to take the all-important recruitment exam.
Justice Bhushan said no political pressure has been exerted to impede the inquiry from revealing big fish. Last year, the High Court ruled that Governor RN Yadav could not be investigated for alleged involvement because he is entitled to immunity while in office.