CBI begins probe on five cases in the Vyapam scam

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday registered five cases in the Vyapam scam against 160 people and sought records related to deaths of five persons.

The central investigative agency  began its probe in the scam on Wednesday, two days after it took over the case.

The investigation was handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court last week. The sleuths called for records from the superintendents of police of Ujjain, Kanker, Gwalior and Jhabua and the deputy inspector general of Indore in relation to the deaths of Namrata Damore, Vijay Patel, Dr Rajendra Arya, Akshay Singh and Deepak Verma. 

The death of Damore, an MBBS student whose name figured in the scam, hit the headlines after the post-mortem report differed with the police version which said she had committed suicide.

Patel, a pharmacist, was a middleman in the scam and associated with the private secretary of a former MP minister.  Arya was arrested in the scam while Singh was a Delhi-based journalist who died soon after interviewing Namrata’s parents.



Verma, a medical student and middleman, died in a road accident.

The registration of FIRs came after the probe team led by Joint Director R P Aggarwal took over the case on Monday and held a series of discussions with the Madhya Pradesh Police's Special Task Force (STF) that was earlier probing the case. 

The first FIR pertained to the Pre-Medical Test of 2010 in which 21 candidates have been named while the second case featuring 8 was about the Pre-PG Examination of 2011.

The third case was registered against 28 people pertaining to illegalities in the Pre-Medical Test 2009 and 2010, a CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi.

One of the cases pertained to the illegal recruitment of Forest Guards in 2013, involving 100 accused. In the fifth case, three have been named for illegalities in allocation of seats of private medical colleges through the Pre-Medical Test,  2011.

The accused were charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those of cheating criminal conspiracy and forgery.