Vyapam case: MP government writing to SIT to probe scribe's death, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government is writing to the high court-constituted SIT probing the Vyapam recruitment scam to thoroughly investigate the death of TV scribe Akshay Singh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said today, a day after he died under mysterious circumstances.

Addressing a press conference here, 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.

"It is very unfortunate. Our condolences are with his family...We are writing to the SIT with a request to carry out a thorough investigation," he said.

The Chief Minister said the post-mortem was conducted yesterday at the Dahod district hospital in Gujarat, where he was taken for treatment, by a panel of doctors and the final report of the post-mortem is awaited. The post-mortem has been videographed, he said.

"Every death is unfortunate and sad. We feel all the deaths (in the scam) should be probed...The state government had earlier written to the high court for probing the deaths," he said, adding that he will be writing again.

Chouhan said that the state government had no role in the investigation in the Vyapam scam that has seen a number of deaths of accused/witnesses and those associated with it, since the high court was monitoring the probe being carried out by the SIT constituted by it.

"The high court is monitoring the probe through the SIT constituted by it. The high court has said the probe is carrying on fine under its monitoring and there is no need for a CBI probe.

"The moment the high court decided to monitor it, that very day the state government's role ended in the scam. When the probe is being carried out under court monitoring, the state government cannot be above the court or the Supreme Court," he said.

38-year-old Akshay, who worked for TV Today group, yesterday suddenly took ill in Meghnagar near Jhabua town and died after having interviewed parents of a girl who was found dead after her name figured in the Vyapam admission and recruitment scandal.