Vyapam scam: Central observer found dead on railway track in Odhisha

A retired bureaucrat who was an observer for two recruitment tests in the Vyapam scam was found dead in Odisha, turning the spotlight back on the mysterious deaths of several people linked to the scandal.

The body of retired Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer Vijay Bahadur was found on a railway track in Jharsuguda early on October 15, police in Odisha said on Friday.

Bahadur was returning to Bhopal from Puri by the Puri-Jodhpur Express with his wife Nita Singh after attending a reunion of 1978 batch IFS officers, Government Railway Police (GRP) officials in Jharsuguda told HT over.

The recovery of the



body revived memories of the death of medical student Namrata Damor, whose body was also recovered on railway tracks near Ujjain in January 2012, more than 150 km from her home in Jhabua. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had observed that mysterious deaths related to the Vyapam scam has “suddenly stopped” after the case was transferred to the CBI.

Deputy superintendent of police, GRP (Jharsuguda), Dilip Bag, told HT over phone that prima facie Bahadur’s death was likely due to a fall from the moving train. “However we are awaiting postmortem report and further investigation would be based on that,” he said.