New Delhi/Bhopal, July 5: A dean of a medical college in Madhya Pradesh involved in Vyapam scam probe was found dead in a Delhi hotel Sunday in the second mysterious death in the scandal in two days, adding yet another murky twist to the case.
The twin deaths gave fresh ammunition to the Congress, which renewed its demand for a CBI probe into the admission and recruitment scam, saying the spate of ‘‘deaths of 45 people’’ related to Vyapam scam is indeed ‘‘extremely intriguing and deeply suspicious.’’
Arun Sharma (64), dean of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur, who was probing irregularities in admissions to his college in connection with the scam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at Dwarka hotel, sending shockwaves and triggering outrage.
An almost empty bottle of alcohol and vomit was found in the room. Forensic evidence has been collected and his body sent for postmortem.
Akshay Singh (38), a Delhi-based investigative journalist with TV Today group, died Saturday in Jhabua district soon after having interviewed the parents of Namrata Damor, an accused in the scam, whose body had been found near rail tracks in Ujjain, January 7, 2012.
Under attack over a string of deaths of people connected in some way to the scandal, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the government will write to the High Court-appointed SIT to ‘‘thoroughly investigate’’ Singh’s death.
Addressing the media in Bhopal, Chouhan said his government has no objection if the MP High Court gets the probe into the scam done by any other agency, including CBI, a demand made by Congress.
What fuelled speculations of possible foul play in Sharma’s death was the fact he is the second dean of the Jabalpur college to have died in suspicious circumstances in the last one year.
D K Sakalle, his predecessor, who was inquiring into admissions of candidates for whom proxies had allegedly appeared in the Pre-Medical Test, had been found burnt at his residence. MP police had then concluded he had committed suicide.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Chouhan and asked him to conduct a probe into Singh’s death amid reports that the chief minister had agreed to send the journalist’s viscera samples to AIIMS following a request from his sister.
Terming the spate of deaths of people reportedly associated with Vyapam as ‘‘extremely intriguing and deeply suspicious,’’ Congress demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI investigation into the scam. Delhi’s ruling AAP demanded a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe. PTI
