Vyapam scam: Digvijay Singh seeks CBI probe into ex-forest officer's death

BHOPAL: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh has demanded CBI probe into the death of the retired Indian Forest Service officer Vijay Bahadur (63), who had served as observer for two recruitment tests conducted by the scam-tainted Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board.

"(The death) must be investigated by CBI investigating the Vyapam (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal) scam," the Congress general secretary tweeted yesterday.

One of the whistle-blowers in the scam, Ajay Dubey, too has written to the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, demanding a CBI probe into Bahadur's death.

Bahadur, who had conducted two tests of Vyapam after it appointed him as observer during 2010-2013, was found dead on railway tracks near Belpahar in Jharsuguda district of Odisha in the wee hours of October 15.

He and his wife Nita Singh were returning here after attending a re-union of 1978 batch of IFS officers by Puri-Jodhpur Express when he went missing.

Assistant sub-inspector Kuleep Patel, the investigating officer, told PTI over phone that the police were expecting autopsy report tomorrow.

The cause of death will be known only after that, he said, adding that the body bore injury marks on the left hand and the right foot.

The mysterious death has brought the scam, a massive admission and recruitment racket, back in focus. It also revived the memory of Namrota Damor, a medical student and an accused in the scam, whose body was found on the tracks near Ujjain in January 2012 under mysterious circumstances.

The Supreme Court handed over the probe into Vyapam scam to CBI in July. The Central investigating agency is probing the scam and also the deaths of over 40 persons, including accused and witnesses, linked to it.