Will move SC: Chouhan

The Supreme Court will on Thursday take up a clutch of petitions seeking a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam even as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday maintained that his Government will make the same prayer in the apex court. Chouhan’s announcement to move the SC came after the Madhya Pradesh High Court, where the State Government had moved a plea seeking a CBI probe in the scam, deferred the matter till July 20 as the similar petition was pending in the SC.

The MP CM dismissed demands for his resignation saying the Congress and other Opposition parties have been seeking his dismissal right from the day he became Chief Minister more than 10 years ago.“My leadership trusts me fully and that is something I am proud of. None told me that I should request for a CBI probe. I felt the need for it myself as an air of suspicion was being created in the last two or three days,” said Chouhan. 

“The Congress and the Opposition cannot tolerate the path of progress under me in Madhya Pradesh. They have been demanding my resignation from the beginning. They are bringing disrepute to Madhya Pradesh,” he said.The scam, in the meantime, took another ominous turn in the State with the post-mortem report of MBBS student Namrata Damor, a suspect in the case whose body was found beside railway tracks in Ujjain in 2012, maintaining that it was a “homicidal” death caused by “violent asphyxia”.

As the report came into the public domain for the first time amid the raging row, the Madhya Pradesh Police decided to reopen the case and launch a fresh investigation.The official reason cited for Chouhan’s visit though was his meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj regarding the preparations for the World Hindi Conference to be held in Bhopal later this year. Chouhan met Swaraj at her residence.

Chouhan said he had full faith in the Supreme Court and the High Court, and in a democracy the rulers should be servants of the public and be beyond doubt. “That is why on Tuesday I sent a request to the High Court for a thorough CBI probe into the Vyapam matter under the High Court-monitored STF,” he said. On why the probe has not covered the State Governor, Chouhan said the High Court has held that he was a constitutional authority, implying he enjoyed immunity.

The Chief Minister said death of people related to the scam was unfortunate and he was confident that truth would come out in a CBI probe.In the Amrita Damor case, the police had registered a case of murder following her death but later closed it describing it as an “accident”. The case came into focus again last week when TV Today group journalist Akshay Singh died soon after interviewing her parents.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the pleas of Congress leader Digvijay Singh and three whistleblowers -- Ashish Chaturvedi, Anand Rai and Prashant Pandey.