By Mubasshir Mushtaq
MUMBAI, India
India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to an urgent hearing of petitions over the mysterious deaths of more than 40 people linked to an exam board scam probe.
The court decided to hear the requests for a federal probe on Thursday after they were made by the political opposition Congress party's General Secretary Digvijaya Singh, the chief minister of the state Madhya Pradesh and four others.
A number of politicians, lawyers, whistleblowers and activists have petitioned the top court for an investigation into an alleged ring in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, popularly known as ‘Vyapam’, that allowed candidates to use bribery to gain high marks in professional exams.
A total of 46 people have died in the past two years; half of them under mysterious circumstances. All of them have died as a result of supposed accidents, burn injuries and suicides.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government has called the deaths natural, a view slammed by opposition parties.
Singh has accused the BJP and its ally the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of protecting influential people allegedly involved in the two-year-old scandal which is currently being investigated by a state-government appointed team and monitored by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
“Vyapam shouldn’t be seen as a case of only corruption but it is a part of the strategy of BJP/RSS to induct their cadres dubiously,” Singh tweeted on Monday.
The scandal has garnered new attention after two recent Vyapam-related deaths that have shocked Indians.
Arun Sharma, the dean of a medical college in Madhya Pradesh was found dead in a New Delhi hotel on Sunday. His predecessor DK Sakalle, who was probing fraudulent admissions in his college, died of burns last year.
Earlier, Akshay Singh, a TV journalist investigating the Vyapam scam also suddenly died on Friday under mysterious circumstances after interviewing family members of a medical student whose name figured in the medical scam.
According to state police records the Vyapam scandal has 2,500 accused, out of which 1,900 are in jail. The Congress party claims more than 7 million candidates benefited from the scam.
Congress has also criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not commenting on the deaths.
