New Delhi: Over two years after Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation has given a clean chit to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
CBI submitted a status report in a Madhya Pradesh court saying there is no basis in the allegations levelled by Digvijaya Singh, that the hard disk seized from the then principal system analyst of Vyapam was tampered to remove the references of ‘CM’ from it.
CBI, in the status report, has mentioned that the hard disk was sent for forensic examination to the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory, and the report had concluded that there was ‘no tampering in the hard disk’.
As per the CFSL report, the disk was last accessed on ‘15/07/2013’, which is three days before it was seized from Nithin Mohindra, the then principal system analyst of Vyapam.
Congress leader and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh, had moved Supreme Court alleging that the probe agencies tampered with the hard disk to remove references to Chouhan. The court had then ordered CBI to file a status report to the trial court. The CBI has also filed chargesheet against 490 accused in Vyapam case related to irregularities in PMT 2013 exams in Madhya Pradesh.
The Vyapam scam dates back to 2007, with investigations in the case starting after the concerted effort of the whistle blowers in 2013. Officers of the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal, or Vyapam) were allegedly rigging a variety of professional eligibility tests for over 6 years. This was happening in close to 52 entrance exams. It was alleged that over Rs 2000 crore was exchanged as bribes.
The case was initially probed by the Special Task Force of the Madhya Pradesh court, under the monitoring of the High Court. But the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in July 2015 after a slew of petitions alleged bias on part of the state STF.
Two years later, the whistleblowers led by Anand Rai say justice cannot be expected till such a time that the ruling party in state and the Centre remains the same. Rai has now said they will now move Supreme Court again, pointing out the irregularities in the CBI probe.
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