India's federal probe agency files two FIRs in Vyapam scam

R P Agarwal with his team arrives to start investigations in Bhopal on Monday.

A day after holding a meet with Special Investigation Team and its Special Task Force officials, the CBI on Wednesday registered two cases in its ongoing probe in the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.
The CBI registered two First Information Reports (FIRs). The first has been registered against 21 candidates who participated in the 2010 Pre-Medical Test (PMT) exam while the second names eight accused in the 2011 Pre PG exam.
The accused have been booked on charges of criminal conspiracy, punishment for cheating by impersonation, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, using as genuine a forged document and knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine.
A 40-member CBI team reached Bhopal on Monday following the Supreme Court's order to take over the investigation from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Madhya Pradesh police.
According to CBI sources, police teams from Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur were probing various matters related to the scam.
The STF, set up by the SIT, and police teams handed over many documents related to the probe to the central agency, sources said.
The Gwalior-Chambal region of the state is where most of the 45 deaths related to the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) or the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), have occurred over the past few years.
The CBI is also planning to set up a separate office in Bhopal exclusively to probe the Vyapam scam.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Wednesday said the alleged kingpin of the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh shared the ill-gotten money with top BJP and RSS leaders, including RSS Sarsanghchalak Suresh Soni and union minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
"Vypam's ill-gotten money soiled in the blood of innocents was shared by certain BJP-RSS leaders," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a press conference here.
Displaying several documents, Surjewala claimed that Vyapam scam kingpin Sudhir Sharma, along with former Madhya Pradesh minister Lakshmikant Sharma, shared the money they made from the racket with Pradhan, Soni, BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Anil Dave, BJP vice president Prabhat Jha and his sons Tushmul Jha and A. Jha.
"We demand the immediate resignation of Chouhan and Dharmendra Pradhan and action against Prabhat Jha and others," the Congress leader added.
"No independent, fair, free and impartial investigation to find the kingpin and the guilty in the Vyapam scam is possible until Shivraj Singh Chouhan is removed as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh," Surjewala said.

• India