NEW DELHI: With calls for a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam getting louder by the day, BJP said it was not averse to such an inquiry but the decision will have to come from the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which is monitoring the case.
Battling yet another crisis on the heels of the massive controversy surrounding External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over lending help to former IPL boss Lalit Modi, the view in BJP is that its government in Madhya Pradesh need not order a CBI probe after the Supreme Court rejected the plea of Congress leader Digvijay Singh in this regard. "Why should we ask the high court to order a CBI or any other probe? The court-appointed SIT is probing the case and it is reporting directly to the high court. The court is seized of the matter and can decide whatever it wishes. We have no issues with any sort of investigation," senior BJP leaders said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Congress has claimed upto 45 people related to the massive admission and recruitment scam have died unnatural deaths and said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan cannot escape responsibility for it.
Pressure on Chouhan for a CBI probe mounted after the body of the dean of a Jabalpur medical college Arun Sharma, who was assisting in the investigation in the Vyapam scam, was found in a Delhi hotel yesterday, a day after TV Today group's journalist Akshay Singh died soon after he had interviewed the parents of a deceased girl accused in the scandal.
BJP leaders have claimed that since the registration of the FIR in July 2013, over 55 cases have been lodged and close to 2000 of the 2500 accused arrested in various Vyapam scam cases. They said none from the families of the deceased persons had alleged any foul play, except in one case where an accused lodged in a Gwalior jail died under mysterious circumstances.
"Even in the journalist's death, the state government accepted all demands of his family, including postmortem by a panel of doctors and video-recording of the exercise," they said. Meanwhile, newly appointed BJP general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya, who stoked a controversy with his insensitive remarks on the death of journalist Akshay Singh, met party president Amit Shah.
Shah was reportedly unhappy over the Vijaywargia's remarks. What transpired during the meeting was not immediately known. "Patrakar vatrakar chhodo, aaj hum se bada patrakar hai kya (Forget the journalist. Is there any bigger journalist than me today)," Vijaywargiya had told reporters when they raised the issue of Akshay's death two days back.