Supreme Court must oversee Vyapam probe, demands AAP

The AAP on Sunday targeted the Madhya Pradesh government over the Vyapam scandal, demanding the Supreme Court must oversee the SIT's probe into it after a television reporter covering the scam 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.

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

Pandey said that the AAP would stand by the journalist's family, while also intensifying its agitation against the central and Madhya Pradesh government in connection with deaths in Vyapam scam.

"AAP MPs will raise this matter in parliament in its monsoon session starting from July 21," he said.

Meanwhile Madhya Pradesh AAP convener Alok Agarwal demanded a CBI probe monitered by the Supreme Court in the Vyapam scam. "A SIT probe should also be launched to investigate the deaths in the Vyapam scam," he demanded.

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

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.

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

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