Vyapam scam: Two deaths in 2 days, Cong ups demand for CBI probe Jabalpur Medical College Dean found dead in Delhi .
New Delhi : Close on the heels of the sudden and mysterious death of TV journalist Akshay Singh at Meghnagar in Madhya Pradesh, Dr Arun Sharma the 64-year-old dean of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College and Hospital, Jabalpur died in hotel near the Indira Gandhi International Airport this morning.
Police authorities said that Dr Sharma had asked the hotel staff to give him a wake-up this call morning, but when he did not respond to repeated calls, the room was broken open in the presence of cops and they found him dead.
Dr Sharma came to Delhi on Saturday and was on his way to Tripura as a member of an inspection team of the Medical Council of India.
He was reportedly helping the police in investigating irregularities in the medical entrance test conducted by the tainted Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) Vyapam.
The police however did not find any prima facie evidence of foul play in Dr. Sharma’s death, however in a remarkable coincidence his death came exactly a year after Dr DK Sakalle, the former dean of the same medical college, was found dead in his official bungalow. The police had claimed that Dr Sakalle had committed suicide.
According to Dr Sudhir Tiwari, president of the Jabalpur unit of the Indian Medical Association Dr Sharma had wept at the funeral of Dr Sakalle and claimed the latter had not committed suicide as police had concluded after an investigation.
“I suspect that Sharma too might have been killed,” Tiwari said while expressing shock over his death and adding that he had learnt two days ago that Dr Sharma had submitted a report related to the scam to the Special Task Force (STF) probing it.
Some 38 people linked to the scam have died in mysterious circumstances though Madhya Pradesh home minister Babulal Gaur has described all the deaths as “normal”.
PTI Adds: The twin deaths gave fresh ammunition to the Congress, which renewed its demand for a CBI probe into the massive admission and recruitment scam. Terming the spate of deaths of people reportedly associated with ‘Vyapam’ as “extremely intriguing and deeply suspicious”, Congress demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI investigation into the alleged scam.
Calling the Vyapam the “most sinister scam of India”, its communications department incharge Randeep Surjewala demanded an inquiry by the Central agency, claiming the mechanism of SIT-STF combine has proved ineffective in probing the matter.
“The spate of deaths of 45 people related to Vyapam scam is indeed extremely intriguing and deeply suspicious. Vyapam has easily turned out to be most sinister scam in the history of India,” he added. Around a fortnight back, the SIT probing the scam cases had submitted a report to the MP High Court wherein it said 23 accused and witnesses in the Vyapam scam had died “unnatural” deaths. Since then two more accused died under mysterious circumstances.
