Nothing Intended: Oops! The scam took a wrong turn!

                                  By: Ashutosh Asthana

Everything was going smooth out there, papers were being leaked, nepotism was at its best, bribe, forgery, everything was planned but the scam took a wrong turn in Madhya Pradesh. The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board is making headlines these days for such odd reasons which the M.P. government and the board members would have never thought of.

Before commenting on any issue it is important to understand about this Vyapam thing which is trending throughout the media. The Madhya Pradesh Vyavasaik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) is a government organization which was setup in 1982. It is responsible for conducting various entrance examinations in the state. The entrance tests are the base for recruiting employees to government jobs and for admissions to educational institutes in the state. This government body came to limelight with the scam attached to it in the near past. The scam involved top officials of the organization, ministers and businessmen taking bribe and selling top posts in government offices to undeserved candidates. Complaints of indiscretion began to come up during 1990’s and the first FIR against the organization was filed in 2000. Till then also everything was under control. The real problem started from 2013 and till today this scam is increasing the TRPs of every news channel.

As I said earlier this scam was smoothly paced and the ‘scams-ters’ were not facing any big issues, it was running as a normal healthy scam! Scams like this have already come up in our country, just like the TET scam of 2012 in which the prime accused Dev Kumar Pandey, an associate of former director of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education Sanjay Mohan, was arrested in February, 2010 for allegedly collecting money from candidates who appeared in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), 2011, to assist in their selection. Its normal in our country that such tiny scams of few crore are aroused! Scams of this magnitude have always been usual in Uttar Pradesh. In March this year in Mathura, nine invigilators, including a centre superintendent of a school in Baldeo block, were suspended for allowing students to copy from one another. The suspended teachers, including the centre superintendent, were arrested after SDM Mahaban Vishwa Bhusan Misra, a member of the flying squad, lodged an FIR against them for allowing mass cheating at their centres during the evening shift. The daughter of a state minister was allegedly caught this year while cheating in the ongoing Secondary Education Board examination in Nathnagar block in Sant Kabir Nagar. Every year hundreds of cheaters who run their chain in Uttar Pradesh are caught for providing cheating material to the students appearing in the Uttar Pradesh boards exams.

It was nothing new in our country, so why did this case, got such immense status? 

Governor of MP, Ram Naresh Yadav

The turning point of the scam came when people associated with this scam were being killed due to obvious reasons in mysterious manner. The reasons were that either the pawns of the game were no more needed as they have become a threat who could leak about the case or killing those who were investigating about the case. Anamika Kushwaha, a Trainee Sub Inspector, Narendra Singh Tomar, an Assistant Veterinary Officer at Raisen, Vijay Singh Patel, a pharmacist posted at Shajapur District Jail,  Namrata Damor, a first year student of MGM Medical College, Indore, Amit Sagar, a veterinary student in Mhow etc. were among the few who were killed in different manner related to this case.

People are killed in this country every day, isn’t it! Likewise these people were also like many others got killed in this case but this case came to public eye when Arun Sharma and Dr DK Sakalley deans of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Medical College in Jabalpur were added to the list of death tolls related to the scam. It became high profile when Madhya Pradesh’s Governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s name was linked to the case and his son, Shailesh Yadav, one of the accused in this scam was also mysteriously killed. Recently the death of a journalist Akshay Singh triggered the anger of people making this case trending on social networking sites and making it the breaking news of channels. Till now more than 40 people have been killed in this case.

Journalist Akshay Singh

The Madhya Pradesh Government formed a Special Task Force (STF) to examine the scam in 2012. The Congress-led opposition expressed concern over neutrality of the STF and demanded a CBI probe, but the government declined to fulfill this demand. The opposition also demanded the Chief Minister for his resignation on ethical grounds in relation of alleged involvement of his ministers and relatives but the Chief Minister had termed it as “mudslinging” by the opposition due to the defeat in Lok Sabha election 2014. On November 5, 2014, Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected Digvijay Singh's petition for CBI probe and instead ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to act as a supervisory body for the court. The SIT is a 3-member team chaired by Justice Chandresh Bhushan, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. With the growing pressure Chief Minister of MP has asked for a CBI probe into the case, but the High Court has cancelled the request as it is not under its jurisdiction. The congress is demanding the Supreme Court to set up another SIT which will govern the CBI in the case. It is obvious that the parrot is still in the cage and thus mere CBI probe will be of no good to the people.

CM of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan

With all the politics going around justice for the aspirants and family of those killed is still awaited. Heating up the political arena and increasing the TRP will not help.

Justice where are you?

The case is serious, still, Happy Reading!