SC to hear plea on sacking MP Guv

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 6

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on July 9 a batch of petitions for its intervention in the ongoing probe into the admission and recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh. One of the petitions by four lawyers has sought the removal of Governor Ram Naresh Yadav for his alleged role.

This comes after the death of several witnesses and others involved in the case under mysterious circumstances.

After a Bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu accepted the plea for an early hearing of the petition against the Governor, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas filed a petition pleading with the SC to take cognizance of the developments in the case pertaining to the irregularities, now known as Vyapam scam.

While the lawyers want the Governor to step down so that his statement can be recorded in the case, Congress leader Digvijay Singh has approached the SC for ordering a CBI probe under its supervision. The Congress has suspected the involvement of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The investigation is currently being done by a special investigation team of the Madhya Pradesh police under the monitoring of the state High Court, which is hearing petitions in the case.

The Congress leader claimed the state SIT was not in a position to carry out a thorough and fair probe since top bureaucrats, police officers and politicians were involved in the scam.

On Singh’s petition, the SC had earlier granted additional four months to the SIT to conclude the probe.

The case has come under greater public scrutiny following the death of Jabalpur Medical College Dean Arun Sharma, journalist Akshay Singh and woman trainee sub-inspector Anamika Sikarwar in the past few days.

Vyapam is the Hindi equivalent of the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), which conducts exams for the recruitment of teachers, medical officers, police personnel and forest guards.