It is an investigation into a cash-for-jobs scam, but it's turning into a macabre crime thriller. As the Special Task Force inquiring into corruption in Madhya Pradesh's Professional Examination Board moves ahead on the two-year-old case, it has reported that 32 suspects have died. However, the main opposition party in the state, the Congress, insists the number is as high as 156.
The PEB scam, as the affair has some to be known, surfaced in July 2013 when eight young men were arrested as they attempted to take a premedical college test as proxies for registered candidates. An initial investigation found that over a dozen tests for recruitment in government departments, conducted by the state examination board, had been fixed in collusion with board officials, middlemen, politicians and bureaucrats.
Since then, a disproportionate number of people interrogated in connection with the swindle or prosecuted for it have been found dead. The latest Special Task Force status report submitted to the Madhya Pradesh High court-appointed Special Investigation Team headed by Justice Chandresh Bhushan on May 27 lists 32 deaths.
Four glaring cases
These four cases were among the 32. In January 2012, the body of Indore medical college student Namrata Damor, 23, was discovered on the railway tracks in Ujjain. On July 4, 2014, Jabalpur medical college dean Dr DK Sakalle, 58, allegedly committed suicide at his official residence. On March 25 this year, the body Madhya Pradesh governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s son Shailesh, 50, was recovered from his Lucknow home. On April 28, pharmacist Vijay Singh Patel,35, was found dead in a hotel owned by a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Kanker (Chhattisgarh).
The report has mentioned names and age of the dead but did not say under what circumstances the deaths occurred. It is also silent on whether the suspects died before or after they were made accused in the scam.
Most of the dead were in the age group of 25-30. They were either students, who fraudulently secured admissions in medical colleges after paying hefty sum to touts of the Professional Examination Board’s bosses or job aspirants who benefited from manipulation of the recruitment tests. Significantly, most of them are from Bhind and Gwalior districts.
More allegations
Leader of opposition Satyadeo Katare, who hails from Bhind, claims as many as 156 persons connected with the scam have died so far. “The 156 dead include accused and suspects, their family members, whistleblowers and witnesses”, Katare told Scroll. However, he could not furnish a list of those he claims are dead.
The SIT chairman on May 28 assured journalists that he would seek detailed investigation into the deaths. However, he declined to divulge more details, claiming this was a "highly sensitive" matter.
Given the state government’s marked reluctance to institute an investigation into the much-publicised deaths of Jabalpur medical college dean Dr Sakalle and pharmacist Vijay Singh, it looks highly unlikely that the Special Task Force will even try to ascertain causes of the 32 deaths. Moreover, the investigating agency has to complete its task before June 15, the deadline given to it by the Supreme Court.
Before he died under mysterious circumstances, Dr Sakalle was scrutinising the records of students who gained admission through the manipulated pre-medical college test conducted by the examination board. Home Minister Babulal Gaur had assured the state assembly that Dr Sakalle’s alleged self-immolation would be investigated into but no action followed. For Vijay Singh’s mysterious death, the Madhya Pradesh government passed the buck on Chhattisgath police as the incident occurred in Kanker district of the neighbouring state. Singh had been arrested in connection with police constable test and was on bail.
Mysterious deaths
No inquiry was initiated into the death of Namrata Damor either, despite a postmortem report confirming that she had been murdered. The Ujjain police dismissed the case as suicide. Damor had passed the pre-medical test in 2009, allegedly with help of a racketeer who worked for scam kingpin Dr Jagdish Sagar. Likewise, governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s son’s death was also attributed to sudden heart attack.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur has declined to comment on the report of 32 deaths and Special Investigative Team chairman’s promise of an investigation, saying it is for the Special Task Force to take a call in this matter.
The case is so so complex and humongous that even two years after the STF began its probe, 650 accused are yet to be arrested. Over 2,000 accused are in jail. The Special Task Force has filed more than 60 chargesheets in various courts in Bhopal and Gwalior in connection with the scam. Since January 2014, it has periodically been submitting reports to the progress of the inquiry to the Special Investigative Team. The SIT, in turn, files the report to the Madhya Pradesh High court which is monitoring the case.
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The PEB scam, as the affair has some to be known, surfaced in July 2013 when eight young men were arrested as they attempted to take a premedical college test as proxies for registered candidates. An initial investigation found that over a dozen tests for recruitment in government departments, conducted by the state examination board, had been fixed in collusion with board officials, middlemen, politicians and bureaucrats.
Since then, a disproportionate number of people interrogated in connection with the swindle or prosecuted for it have been found dead. The latest Special Task Force status report submitted to the Madhya Pradesh High court-appointed Special Investigation Team headed by Justice Chandresh Bhushan on May 27 lists 32 deaths.
Four glaring cases
These four cases were among the 32. In January 2012, the body of Indore medical college student Namrata Damor, 23, was discovered on the railway tracks in Ujjain. On July 4, 2014, Jabalpur medical college dean Dr DK Sakalle, 58, allegedly committed suicide at his official residence. On March 25 this year, the body Madhya Pradesh governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s son Shailesh, 50, was recovered from his Lucknow home. On April 28, pharmacist Vijay Singh Patel,35, was found dead in a hotel owned by a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Kanker (Chhattisgarh).
The report has mentioned names and age of the dead but did not say under what circumstances the deaths occurred. It is also silent on whether the suspects died before or after they were made accused in the scam.
Most of the dead were in the age group of 25-30. They were either students, who fraudulently secured admissions in medical colleges after paying hefty sum to touts of the Professional Examination Board’s bosses or job aspirants who benefited from manipulation of the recruitment tests. Significantly, most of them are from Bhind and Gwalior districts.
More allegations
Leader of opposition Satyadeo Katare, who hails from Bhind, claims as many as 156 persons connected with the scam have died so far. “The 156 dead include accused and suspects, their family members, whistleblowers and witnesses”, Katare told Scroll. However, he could not furnish a list of those he claims are dead.
The SIT chairman on May 28 assured journalists that he would seek detailed investigation into the deaths. However, he declined to divulge more details, claiming this was a "highly sensitive" matter.
Given the state government’s marked reluctance to institute an investigation into the much-publicised deaths of Jabalpur medical college dean Dr Sakalle and pharmacist Vijay Singh, it looks highly unlikely that the Special Task Force will even try to ascertain causes of the 32 deaths. Moreover, the investigating agency has to complete its task before June 15, the deadline given to it by the Supreme Court.
Before he died under mysterious circumstances, Dr Sakalle was scrutinising the records of students who gained admission through the manipulated pre-medical college test conducted by the examination board. Home Minister Babulal Gaur had assured the state assembly that Dr Sakalle’s alleged self-immolation would be investigated into but no action followed. For Vijay Singh’s mysterious death, the Madhya Pradesh government passed the buck on Chhattisgath police as the incident occurred in Kanker district of the neighbouring state. Singh had been arrested in connection with police constable test and was on bail.
Mysterious deaths
No inquiry was initiated into the death of Namrata Damor either, despite a postmortem report confirming that she had been murdered. The Ujjain police dismissed the case as suicide. Damor had passed the pre-medical test in 2009, allegedly with help of a racketeer who worked for scam kingpin Dr Jagdish Sagar. Likewise, governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s son’s death was also attributed to sudden heart attack.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur has declined to comment on the report of 32 deaths and Special Investigative Team chairman’s promise of an investigation, saying it is for the Special Task Force to take a call in this matter.
The case is so so complex and humongous that even two years after the STF began its probe, 650 accused are yet to be arrested. Over 2,000 accused are in jail. The Special Task Force has filed more than 60 chargesheets in various courts in Bhopal and Gwalior in connection with the scam. Since January 2014, it has periodically been submitting reports to the progress of the inquiry to the Special Investigative Team. The SIT, in turn, files the report to the Madhya Pradesh High court which is monitoring the case.