The CBI, after taking over the investigation of the Vyapam recruitment and admission scam, on Thursday simultaneously raided 40 locations in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
According to official sources, a CBI team also raided ex-minister (Higher Education) laxmikant Sharma's house at his home town Sironj (Vidisha), ex-Congress leader Sanjeev Saxena and the headquarters of Vyapam in Bhopal.
In Bhopal, premises of Nitin Mahindra, Pankaj Trivedi and Sudhir Sharma were also searched.
A CBI official in a statement said the CBI conducted searches related to Vyapam cases at around 40 places in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh including Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Rewa, Jabalpur, lucknow and Allahabad.
Notably, the CBI has to submit a status report in the Supreme Court in Vyapam scam by October 9. It has so far registered 105 FIRs in the cases and 12 preliminary inquiries into suspected deaths related to Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) or the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam. The scam involves rigging of various admission and recruitment exams through committing irregularities by officials and other influential people. It is also investigating 40 deaths linked to the scam following a Supreme Court order.
According to CBI sources, searches are being conducted to unearth larger conspiracy of alleged corrupt practices in the conduct of the examinations.
The agency has registered over 100 cases in connection with various aspects of Vyapam scam.
The Supreme Court had directed the agency to take over all Vyapam scam matters irrespective of their present status.
The Pioneer reporter from Indore informed that in an early morning swoop, the sleuths of the CBI on Thursday raided the residential premises of a key Vyapam accused, namely, erstwhile Vyapam examination controller Pankaj Trivedi, Jagdish Sagar, Vinod Bhandari of Arubindo Medical college and his manager Raghuvanshi. Though the CBI officials remained tight-lipped about the findings, it is believed that they have stumbled upon important documents which may throw further light on conspiracy angles of the Vyapam scam.
According to reports, a large contingent of CBI officials comprising both male and female officials after their arrival in the city on Wednesday night embarked on their operations against key Vyapam accused from Thursday morning with five separate teams.
As the residence of Sagar was sealed in Vijay Nagar locality of the city, the CBI officials took the help of the local police to unlock his residence and carry out search operations.
Earlier, similar search operations had been carried out by the Indore crime branch as well as the STF at the residences of the main Vyapam accused in Indore. Sources informed that the recent CBI raids may expose some lacuna in the earlier probe carried out by the STF in the Vyapam scam.