BHOPAL:The Vyapam case came into sharp national focus following the death of TV journalist Akshay Singh covering the sensational scam, but the series of deaths of those linked to the scam still continues to confound the court-appointed SIT team. The SIT is particularly interested in carrying out further probe especially into the 10 deaths that took place due to accidents. The SIT wrote to special task force on June 30 to investigate the 10 accidents as these could throw up clues linked to the probe. Though, the state government and the SIT believe that not every death could be linked to Vyapam scam, even though they were named in various cases under investigation. But they feel that those cases should be looked into.
SIT sources said the number of deaths may continue to rise as most of the arrested 2,000 persons were not hardened criminals, but those who were the beneficiaries or had got involved for some pecuniary gains. “The mental pressure of destroying one’s career and ruining their lives due to involvement in scam have been playing on the minds of many.
The societal pressure, coupled with stringent law that most of the accused have not got bail, had created a fear psychosis in their minds. More deaths may occur,” top source associated with the probe told Express. The STF has a list of 31 cases, in which persons named in various FIRs have died since 2007, some of them even before the case was registered against them.
However, of particular importance are those killed in road accidents. There is the curious case of three medical students-- Anuj Uikey, Anshul Sachan, and Shyambeer Yadav-- in a road accident on June 16, 2010. Though, parents of the victims did not allege foul play, the fact of the matter was that the trio had travelled together on the fateful day. Sachan’s name had figured in four cases, most of them registered after his death. “We want the Police to get call details of those dead in road accidents, case diaries from respective police stations, and study their case afresh,” SIT member Vijay Raman, when contacted told Express. Bhushan said the SIT had asked the STF to investigate the deaths and had even informed the court about it.
Curious Case of Namrata
Namrata Damore, a 19-year-old medical student had gone missing from her house in January 2012. Her family had filed a missing person report. Meanwhile, police recovered an unidentified body. The post-mortem revealed that death occurred due to asphyxia, so it could be a case of homicide. As the body could not be identified, police performed her last rites. However, 22 days later, Amrata’s brother identified his sister through the picture available with the police.
Now, her parents suspect foul play in her daughter’s death. According to initial post-mortem report, filed on January 9, 2012, she had died due to asphyxia. The autopsy report was signed by Dr B B Purohit (Forensic Medicine), Dr O P Gupta (Medical Officer) and Dr Anita Joshi (Gynaecologist).Dr Purohit told reporters on Wednesday that the “panel of doctors which conducted the post-mortem had never mentioned in their short PM report as well as the detailed PM report that it was a case of suicide...We also found nail marks at three places on her face.” The police had initially registered a case of murder, but closed the case later saying it was a suicide.
Namrata’s call data records showed that she was in touch with one Vishal Varma. Though traces of semen were found on Namrata’s body, they could not conclusively match it with any of the accused. Later, names of both Namrata and Vishal cropped up as beneficiary in the medical entrance scam.
However, Namrata was cleared of any wrongdoing in securing her admission by the SIT.
