CBI REGISTERS MURDER CASE IN VYAPAM ‘SUICIDE’

State police had said Namrata Damor had committed suicide; agency to probe journalist’s death as well

BHOPAL/NEW DELHI: The CBI initiated a murder probe on Friday into the suspicious death of a Vyapam scam accused that state police had termed suicide, as the agency also kicked off a preliminary inquiry to determine how a TV journalist died this month while interviewing the medical student’s father.

BHOPAL/NEW DELHI: The CBI initiated a murder probe on Friday into the suspicious death of a Vyapam scam accused that state police had termed suicide, as the agency also kicked off a preliminary inquiry to determine how a TV journalist died this month while interviewing the medical student’s father.

The body of 20- year- old Namrata Damor was found near railway tracks in Ujjain more than three years ago with an initial post-mortem suggesting she was murdered.

But police said she took her own life and closed the case last year based on a second autopsy report and the opinion of a medico-legal expert who studied photographs and circumstantial evidence before ruling out the possibility of murder.

HT had reported earlier on Friday that the agency was set to register a case to probe Damor’s death and question the forensic experts who had come up with contradictory findings.

Damor allegedly secured admission into an Indore medical college illegally, emerging as a tiny strand from a tangled web of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, doctors and businessmen suspected to be involved in the massive rigging of job and college admission tests.

Her family and activists raised questions over the manner in which the case was closed while pointing out that the first autop- sy report said the woman died because of “violent asphyxia as a result of smothering”, which indicated it was a murder.

“We will investigate the (Vyapam) cases within the mandate that has been given to the CBI by the Supreme Court. Our job is to investigate and submit our reports to the court and that we will do to the satisfaction of the court,” CBI director Anil Sinha said.

Suspicions over the death reared up again when TV reporter Akshay Singh died on July 4 shortly after being taken ill while talking to Damor’s father at her home in Madhya Pradesh’s Meghnagar city.