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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered transfer of the cases related to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh and the spate of deaths of the people related to it by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The CBI will start its probe from Monday.
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu handed over the probe to the CBI after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court that he has instructions by the Madhya Pradesh government on handing over the probe to the CBI.
The court also issued a notice to the CBI and sought its response within two weeks on the demand for a SC-monitored investigation.
In its order, the court said: “The AG on instructions says that the state of Madhya Pradesh has no objection whatsoever for transferring investigation into criminal cases related to Vyapam scam to the CBI and also the cases related to the deaths of the persons…for fair and impartial investigation.”
“We appreciate the stand of the attorney general”, the court said and added: “In view of the above, we transfer investigation of criminal cases relating to Vyapam scam and the deaths to the CBI from Monday.”
On the plea seeking apex court monitoring of the CBI probe into the Vyapam scam, the court said it will take a call on this after hearing from the investigating agency on July 24.
Meanwhile, the court has issued notice on a plea challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court order quashing the FIR against state Governor Ram Naresh Yadav for his alleged involvement in forest guard recruitment scam on the grounds that he enjoyed immunity of the constitutional office he was occupying.
The SC issued notice to the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government on the petition demanding the removal of Yadav. The court has sought a reply within four weeks.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, while arguing for the petitioner, asked as to why the Governor has not been removed from his post.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh and the three whistleblowers – Ashish Chaturvedi, Anand Rai and Prashant Pandey – while seeking a SC-monitored CBI probe had said they have no faith in the Special Task Force that is monitoring the SIT probe into the scam.
The petition of the Congress leader and the three whistleblowers were mentioned by senior counsel Vivek Tankha and Indira Jaising.
Digvijay Singh had sought the quashing of April 24 High Court order and the SIT’s Vyapam case report of April 22 that the material produced by the senior Congress leader was prima facie “fabricated and forged to mislead the investigation”.
The allegation was that there was tampering of evidence by the Indore police in the Excel Sheet maintained by one of the accused Nitin Mohindra and the same was done to shield the chief minister. The said claim was made on the alleged authentication of the “tampered” Excel sheet by the Bengaluru-based Truth Laboratory.
This was contested by the SIT and the high court had accepted its prima facie finding.
Singh has further sought direction that for sending the “the incriminating material and truth laboratory report provided by the petitioner for examination, analysis and authentication by a central forensic laboratory”.
Besides that, he has also sought transfer of investigation into one case from the state police to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
