Vyapam scam: All cases to be probed by CBI, says SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today said that all cases arising out of the probe into Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam scam will be taken over by CBI and directed the agency to appoint public prosecutors within three weeks to conduct the trial.

"Otherwise, we will pass a judicial order on appointment of public prosecutors," a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said, while accepting the request of Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to grant the agency three weeks to appoint public prosecutors.

The bench, which also included justices Kurian Joseph and Amitava Roy, said all Vyapam cases which have now risen from 185 to 212 will be looked after by the CBI, irrespective of the fact that in 78 of them the state's SIT/STF have filed chargesheets.

The issue of shortfall of CBI sleuths to take over the investigation was also raised like in the previous hearing but the bench told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that "you do it at the earliest as in the last 10 days nothing has happened".

The Attorney General (AG) also sought three weeks to come back with a clear cut proposal on filling the vacancies of investigators in CBI, which requires a mandatory training of at least two years.

"You need trained investigators. It takes two years to train them and I don't have a pool of investigators," Rohatgi told the bench which posted the matter for further hearing on September 11.

He told the bench that when the matter was first heard in the apex court, there were 185 FIRs registered in the scam which has now gone up to 212 and there are chances that the number would rise further.

At this point, the Solicitor General said though the Attorney General was speaking about the rise in the number of cases, he is not giving the agency the required staff.

"The AG is not giving us (CBI) staff," Kumar said while expressing difficulty in taking over all cases by the CBI.

The AG was also representing the Department of Personnel and Training, which looks after the filling up of vacancies in the CBI.