Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur dismisses as ‘natural’ deaths of accused and witnesses, without even waiting for the post-mortem.
New Delhi : Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who is also a petitioner in the Vyapam proceedings, has expressed his distrust over the functioning of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in this case and said that the only option left now is to approach the Supreme Court.
“It’s a very serious issue that one after the other, people connected to the Vyapam scandal are dying under mysterious circumstances. We have already lost faith in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
The only option left is to approach the Supreme Court,” said Singh after reports came in of two fresh deaths of accused involved in the scam.
The media focus turned on the scam after it was reported that two accused in the case had died — 40-year-old Dr Rajendra Arya died at Birla Hospital in Gwalior on Sunday and Narendra Singh Tomar (29), a veterinarian, passed away in an Indore hospital. Tomar was lodged in an Indore jail.
The Madhya Pradesh government has steadfastly refused a CBI probe into this scam in which 25 persons — either accused or witnesses — have died and more than 1800 have been arrested on the charge of either paying or accepting a bribe.
Even today, Madhya Pradesh home minister Babulal Gaur made light work of these deaths. He said: “Death is a natural occurrence. One who has been born will die,” when asked whether the government was contemplating ordering an inquiry into the death of a large number of accused and witnesses in the scam.
Gaur gave the same response to the most high profile death connected with the scam -– that of Shailesh Yadav, son of Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav.
Shailesh, 50, who was alleged to have fixed the recruitment of 10 candidates as Grade III teachers, was found dead at his father’s residence in Mall Avenue area of Lucknow on March 25 this year.
Incidentally an FIR was filed against Governor Naresh Yadav a few months ago in the same case, and there were questions about his continuance in office. But then the High Court ordered that the FIR be quashed, and that he enjoyed immunity from prosecution while in office.
Digvijay slammed Gaur for his views and said, ”Babulal’s comments are callous. How can it be a natural death and how can Madhya Pradesh government give a clean chit even before the post-mortem?”
Singh has been demanding chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s resignation for the massive cover-up operation in this scam involving the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, which holds exams for positions like medical officers, constables, teachers and auditors for government departments, and admissions to professional courses in the state. Candidates allegedly bribed government officials to ensure that they made it to the list of those who cleared the tests.
