Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Police not serious about Vyapam: Whistle-blower

- Shruti Tomar letters@hindustant­imes.com

BHOPAL: Right To Informatio­n activist Ashish Chaturvedi has alleged that the police are not serious in their investigat­ion of Vyapam-related cases and claimed that the way Jhansi Road police station, Gwalior is handling one of his Vyapam related complaints, is a total give away.

Chaturvedi was one of the whistle blowers in the multi-layered recruitmen­t-cum-admission Vyapam scam, and has received death threats for his role in bringing the scam to light.

Chaturvedi said he lodged a complaint with Jhansi Road police station in June 2017 , that important documents had gone missing from Gajra Raja Medical College, Gwalior, thereby impacting the investigat­ion into the case.

Chaturvedi said, “I came to know through a RTI reply that the verificati­on check list, admission list, cancellati­on sheets and even the register of attendance of employees of August 2011 -- crucial to know who all were on duty and verified the documents of Vyapam accused – were missing.”

He added that he “gave all the evidence to the police, but they sat on the investigat­ion for 14 months and then on Friday they lodged a case under non-cognisable sections against two persons. They should have registered case under cognisable sections and arrested them.”

Jhansi Road police station subinspect­or Bharat Ram Thakur said the police had done the needful. “After accepting the complaint, we investigat­ed the matter and found that some documents had been either destroyed by the authoritie­s or had gone missing.

A case has been registered against two people including a clerk and a student-wing in-charge under section 201 (Causing disappeara­nce of evidence of offence, or giving false informatio­n to screen offender) and section 204 (Destructio­n of 1[document or electronic record] to prevent its production as evidence) of IPC.”

Chaturvedi said that the police should have registered case under Section 120 B (conspiracy), Section 420 (cheating) of IPC and also under Prevention of Corruption Act, as both the accused are government servants, and arrested them. “Police are being lenient to the accused,” he alleged.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India