Supreme Court must oversee Vyapam probe: AAP

The AAP on Sunday said the Supreme Court must oversee the SIT's probe into the Vyapam scandal in Madhya Pradesh after a television reporter covering it died under mysterious circumstances.

"It is sad that one of our journalist friends has died while reporting the Vyapam scam," Aam Aadmi Party spokesman Dilip Pandey told the media here. "Vyapam is no longer a scam, it has become a 'narsanhar' (massacre)."

He said the Supreme Court should oversee the probe presently being conducted by a Special Investigation Team.

Pandey also said that both Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Governor Ram Naresh Yadav should be sacked.

"How can we expect a fair probe from the governor (who is overseeing the SIT) when his own name is in the FIR of the Vyapam scam?" asked the AAP leader.

Madhya Pradesh AAP convener Alok Agarwal said the Central Bureau of Investigation should immediately launch a probe into the scam per se while the SIT investigates the deaths.

The AAP reaction followed Saturday's death of a New Delhi-based television reporter, Akshay Singh, at Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh while he was covering the story.

Akshay Singh was cremated here on Sunday, the event attended by his family, a large number of journalists and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The admission and recruitment racket in the Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal (Vyapam) or the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board apparently involves politicians, officials and businessmen.

More than 40 people associated with the scam have died since 2013.

The most high-profile death was of Shailesh Yadav, son of Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. Shailesh, 50, was found dead at his father's residence in the Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on March 25.