MPPEB scam: Bharti terms Cong allegations as conspiracy

Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti today described as an "ugly political conspiracy" the Congress's allegation that there was an attempt to magnify her role by investigating agencies probing the Madhya Pradesh recruitment scam.
Congress has also alleged that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was involved in the 2013 education scam in the state.
The party claimed that a scam-related excel sheet seized from a computer was tampered with to shield Chouhan and his family.
The state government has already rejected the allegations as "baseless and untrue". It said the charges were an attempt to "tarnish" Chouhan's image.
"Dragging my name into the issue is part of a political conspiracy. I myself (had) demanded a CBI probe six months back when my name figured in news reports. This (raising the matter again) is an ugly face of the politics of conspiracy," the Union Minister told reporters at her official residence here.

Congress leaders, including party General Secretary Digvijay Singh, had yesterday alleged that Bharti's name figured 10 times in the original excel sheet but it was magnified to 17 in the fudged excel sheet submitted by the Special Task Force (STF), which is probing the PEB scam, to the trial court.

Seeking to clear the air on the issue, Bharti, who is viewed as the rival of Chouhan in state politics, said, "I am so confident on the issue that last year I myself offered to visit the Police Headquarters to record my statement when my name cropped up in the scam.

She said the IG, STF, had issued an statement clarifying that she was not involved in the scam and later the state DGP personally conveyed the same to her.
"Since the matter is now sub-judice, it is not proper on my part to make a public statement," the Union Minister said.
Bharti said she herself had suggested publicly to Chouhan to hand over the probe to CBI.
Later, Chouhan handed over the probe to the state's most credible investigative agency, STF, she said.
The scam was unearthed in July 2013 by Indore Police after they arrested dummy candidates in the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) examination conducted by the Board.