Digvijaya moves Supreme Court for CBI probe into Vyapam cases

Janjivan Bureau
NEW DELHI: Upping the ante on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh on the Vyapam scam, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking CBI investigation into the case under apex court monitoring.
The petition comes at a time when the State government is facing questions about the deaths of over 40 witnesses and accused in the scam. In his petition before the Supreme Court, Mr. Singh recounts that an “external whistleblower” had approached him in December 2014-January 2015 under threat of life from high-profile persons of Madhya Pradesh and State police agencies.
“The whistleblower was privy to very sensitive incriminating/damaging information regarding the involvement of Chief Minister and Chief Minister’s family in VYAPAM scam,” the petition said. It said that Mr. Singh approached the SIT on February 16, 2015 with the whistleblower’s digital information and documents, which included an Excel sheet allegedly with acronyms of persons involved in the scam. It said that no action was taken by either SIT or Special Task Force (STF) on the information. Instead a report was prepared on April 22 by the SIT on the sole basis of a demonstration given by the STF that the evidence was doctored.
Subsequently, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on April 24, 2015 also agreed with the SIT report.
Seeking to quash both the SIT report and the April 24 High Court order, Mr, Singh said the report entirely banked on the demonstration given by STF, which is both “ill-equipped and ill-trained to handle the nuances of digital forensics”.
Mr. Singh said neither the High Court nor the SIT took into consideration the fact that documents had already been authenticated by the Truth Lab, a renowned forensic lab with several retired judges on board, in Bangalore.
The Congress general secretary claimed that the Special Investiation Team of the state police currently investigating the scam has expressed its “helplessness” in the matter given its magnitude and the alleged involvement of top officials of the police, civil services and judiciary as also BJP and RSS leaders.