Nine CBI courts hearing Vyapam cases have been closed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court at the request of the agency, which wanted the cases to be shifted to its other special courts for a tighter scrutiny of trials.
The HC had set up 22 special courts for hearing Vyapam scam-related cases. It had closed four of them earlier. Of the remaining 18, nine were in Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore. The districts of Rewa, Damoh, Sagar, Balaghat, Morena, Chhatarpur, Guna, Bhind and Khandwa had one court each.
The courts in these nine districts will now be closed at the request of the CBI. Their 38 cases will be brought to the special Vyapam courts in Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore, CBI sources said.
They said the agency had made the request in this regard to the Madhya Pradesh HC which allowed the plea through an order on 11 September. The sources said the special CBI courts in Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore have necessary infrastructure and human resource that can monitor the ongoing trials.
The Vyapam court in Bhopal has three special judges and one special magistrate, Gwalior has two special judges and one special magistrate, while one special judge each is there in Indore and Jabalpur.
"It will not impact the ongoing trials. These nine courts were hearing 38 of the total 154 cases in which most of the witnesses do not belong to those districts. Hence, there will be no impact of moving these cases to the special courts in Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore and Gwalior," said an official.