Vyapam scam: SC sends notice to MP govt on probe into pvt medical college examinations

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued another notice to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh, formally seeking its views on two other petitions demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into private medical college examinations in which the controversy-ridden Vyapam played a role.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu, Arun Kumar Mishra and Amitava Roy, issued the notices on the petitions filed by whistleblowers Anand Rai and Ashish Chaturvedi, seeking the state and the CBI's reply within two weeks. The petitions had come up earlier before the same bench during the hearing on Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or its Hindi acronym Vyapam, but were put off for a separate hearing.

After hearing short arguments, the bench issued the notices on the plea for a CBI probe into Vyapam's role in private college admissions. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan argued Rai's case while Chaturvedi's case was espoused by senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaising. The senior lawyers were assisted by lawyers VK Chopra and Vaibhav Srivastava.



The order came on the day that the CBI, through ASG Maninder Singh, urged SC to permit the STF, which had been probing the case before the court ordered its transfer to the CBI, to file more chargesheets in the case. “The CBI will take at least 4-5 weeks to take over the cases. Let the STF file the other chargesheets. Otherwise, the accused will all get bail,” Singh told the bench, which said it will hear the CBI plea for a clarification only on July 20.