Chouhan must quit for fair Vyapam probe: CPI-M

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan must resign if "an impartial investigation" has to be held in the Vyapam recruitment scam, the CPI-M said on Thursday.

An editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy" also said that the Supreme Court must supervise any CBI probe into the scandal so that the Narendra Modi government cannot interfere in the enquiry.

"The CBI investigation should be supervised by the Supreme Court, otherwise the BJP government at the centre can interfere in the CBI enquiry," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

"Further, it is essential that Shivraj Chouhan step down from the chief ministership so that a fair and impartial investigation can be conducted.

"His conduct in office has not inspired confidence that this can be done while he is in office."

Saying the Vyapam scam flourished in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, it said it had badly dented the image of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its state government.

"The Modi government cannot pretend that it is business as usual, when the ruling party and its ministers at the centre and chief ministers in the states are engulfed in corruption and nepotism," it said.

The editorial described it as "a killer scam", pointing out that 24 of the accused had died "unnatural deaths" and another 22 linked to it had also died mysteriously -- making a total of 46 deaths.

"The Vyapam scam involved facilitating copying, impersonation of candidates appearing in examinations and even introducing high marks on blank answer sheets.

"The racket involved hundreds of crores of rupees. In terms of the wide network of persons involved and the multi-layers ... this scam is unprecedented."