Vyapam scam emerges as CBI’s biggest probe with 153 FIRs lodged

Ten months after CBI began probing Madhya Pradesh’s Vyapam test-rigging scam on Supreme Court’s orders, the case has emerged as its biggest probe so far, pipping the chit-funds scam.

The status of Vyapam being CBI’s biggest investigation since its inception in 1963 is on the strength of a comparison of the total number of FIRs registered across other cases.

CBI has registered 153 FIRs in the Vyapam case, which might even touch the 200 mark soon, said an agency source.

Vyapam’s FIRs’ tally is double that of the corresponding figure, 76, for the chit-funds scam probe that began two years ago.

The chit-fund probe covers financial fraud worth ` 1.2 lakh crore over the last 20 years, perpetrated against over six crore Indians, or nearly one in every Indian, by dozen-odd firms across the country, including those from the Pearl and Saradha groups.

CBI’s Vyapam probe is scanning multiple rackets that helped candidates rig examinations — for state jobs and admissions to engineering or medical

CBI HAS ALSO FILED 12 PRELIMINARY ENQUIRIES TO PROBE “SUSPICIOUS” DEATHS OF THOSE WHO WERE SCAM’S ALLEGED ACCUSED OR WHISTLEBLOWERS

courses — conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), popularly known as ‘Vyapam’, for money.

The apex court handed over the Vyapam probe to the CBI last July after a string of mysterious deaths, numbering around 35, triggered nationwide outrage and allegations by whistleblowers of a massive cover-up to shield top bureaucrats and politicians. CBI has registered 12-odd Preliminary Enquiries to probe “suspicious” deaths of those who were the scam’s alleged beneficiaries, accused or whistle-blowers.

HT on Tuesday first reported that the CBI recently questioned the state’s former technical education minister Laxmikant Sharma and former officer on special duty to the state governor, Dhanraj Yadav, in the Vyapam probe.