BHOPAL: Three senior ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh met the deputy inspector general of CBI, Tarun Gaba—probing the Vyapam scam—here on Thursday demanding a criminal case against three persons, including Congress national general secretary Digvijaya Singh and two whistle-blowers Dr Anand Rai and Prashant Pandey, for making false allegations against the MP chief minister in connection with the Vyapam scam.
The three ministers—minister for public relations Dr Narottam Mishra, home minister Bhupendra Singh and minister of state for cooperatives Vishwas Sarang—met the DIG at the CBI office in the afternoon and demanded that Singh and the two whistle-blowers be booked by CBI under Sections 120B, 182, 192, 195, 465 and 468 for criminal conspiracy, forgery, and fabrication of false evidence in the scam for defaming the CM.
The development came a day after the CBI (which has been probing the scam since July 2015 on a Supreme Court order) reportedly informed the apex court that Digvijaya Singh and others would soon face action for running a high-pitched campaign in the Vyapam scam against the MP chief minister.
On Wednesday, the CBI in its affidavit submitted before the apex court, reportedly indicated that the allegations of tampering of the seized hard disk were false and some people making such allegations were found to be indulging in the creation of false digital records in the pen drive based on which false complaints were being made.
The CBI reportedly informed the SC that it would take necessary action against the culprits in accordance with the law for making such false allegations and creation of false documents.
In 2015, Digvijaya Singh had filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court, seeking forensic examination of the documents, including the hard disk recovered from the office of MP Professional Examination Board—Vyapam. The CBI, however, submitted before the SC that the documents were sent to the Central Forensic Science Lab, Hyderabad for scrutiny and that the report suggested no tampering.
The investigating agency had also told the SC on Wednesday, in response to a petition by Vyapam whistleblower Prashant Pandey, the present petitioner in his petition alleged tampering of hard disk seized by Indore police on July 18, 2013.
It further said that it had sent to the CFSL Hyderabad both the hard disk and pen drive given by Pandey and Singh.
Reacting to the demand by the three ministers, one of the two whistle-blowers Dr Anand Rai (a state government medical officer) said his name was unnecessarily being dragged in the pen drive-hard disc tampering issue. "The affidavit submitted by the CBI before the SC on Wednesday doesn't mention my name at all," he said.
"On the contrary, it was me only who gave the CBI the critical information about the chain of custody of the hard disk. I don't (know) who has influenced the three ministers to put pressure on an ordinary medical officer like me. I am not going to be perturbed by any pressures and threats and will fight till last breath to ensure that all authors of the Vyapam scam finally end up in jail one day," said Rai in a comment posted on his facebook page on Thursday.
Meanwhile, reacting to Thursday’s development, MP Congress spokesperson KK Mishra termed the visit of the three ministers at the CBI Vyapam cases office in Bhopal and their demands as a direct political interference in the working of the premier investigation agency.
He also questioned the CBI affidavit in the SC making references against Digvijaya Singh and other petitioners, when the closed envelope containing the CFSL Hyderabad report on pen drive tampering is yet to reach the trial court.