The onus for ordering a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam now rests with Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday deferred hearing on a state government's plea for an inquiry by the central agency, saying the apex court would hear similar petitions on Thursday.
As the MP high court deferred the hearing till July 20, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was in Delhi, said his government will request the Supreme Court for a CBI inquiry into the scandal which, according to Congress, has claimed 49 lives so far.
Meanwhile, the massive admission and recruitment scam that has seriously dented the state's BJP government's public image, took another murky turn with the post mortem report of a female MBBS student, a suspect in the case whose body was found beside railway tracks in Ujjain in 2012, maintaining it was a "homicidal" death caused by "violent axphyxia".
As the report came into the public domain for the first time at the height of the controversy over a string of mysterious deaths of people associated with Vyapam, including five over the past week, the Madhya Pradesh police decided to reopen the case and launch fresh investigation.
Police had registered a case of murder following Amrita Damor's death but later closed it describing it as an "accident". The case that had faded from public memory with time, had come into focus last week when TV Today group journalist Akshay Singh died soon after interviewing her parents.
A day after the Chouhan government buckled under heightened all round pressure and moved the high court seeking a CBI probe, the matter came up before a division bench headed by Chief Justice A M Khankilwar which deferred the hearing till July 20 on the ground that the Supreme Court is to hear a clutch of similar pleas on Thursday.
Additional Advocate General P Kaurav said the state government had in its plea contended that though the Special Task Force of MP police was "efficiently" investigating the scam, it wants a CBI inquiry following the "recent unfortunate incidents".
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday agreed to hear the plea of Congress leader Digvijay Singh and three whistle-blowers -- Ashish Chaturvedi, Anand Rai and Prashant Pandey -- seeking a CBI probe into the scam.
Petitions have also been filed seeking removal of MP Governor Ram Naresh Yadav for his alleged complicity in the scam. The STF had filed an FIR against Yadav in the case but he got relief from the high court, which said no criminal prosecution could be initiated against him till the time he occupied the Constitutional post.
Meanwhile, Chouhan, who was in Delhi, said his government will urge the Supreme Court to order a CBI probe, but virtually ruled out his resignation.
"We requested the (Madhya Pradesh) high court that the probe should be done by CBI. The matter is likely to come up before the Supreme Court tomorrow. We will make the same prayer there too," Chouhan said.
"The Congress and the opposition cannot tolerate the path of progress under me in Madhya Pradesh. They have been demanding my resignation from the beginning. They are bringing disrepute to Madhya Pradesh," he told reporters in Delhi when asked about demands for his stepping down.
Under strident attack, Chouhan hit back saying "I want to ask if Congress does not have faith in the high court? Does it not have faith in the monitoring being done by it? Does it not trust Constitutional institutions?"
Chouhan said when petitions were filed in the MP high court and the Supreme Court for CBI inquiry into the Vyapam scam, "the two honourable courts said the STF probe was good, several influential people were arrested".
"Ever since the high court constituted an SIT headed by a retired judge to monitor on a day-to-day basis the probe conducted by the STF, the state government has nothing to do with the investigation," he said, responding to allegations of his government's complicity in the scam and apprehensions voiced by the opposition that it would influence the probe.
Chouhan said he was being targeted as part of a "conspiracy" and "everything will become clear after the probe".
Despite Chouhan requesting the Madhya Pradesh high court for a CBI probe into the scandal there was no let up in Congress' relentless assault on him with the party slamming the "criminal delay" in ordering an investigation by the central agency.
"This scam has an abhorring chapter of crime, conspiracy and murder. Preliminary evidence has its own significance in investigation. Shivraj Singh Chouhan has made a criminal delay in handing over the probe to CBI and many evidences have already been wiped out by now," Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said.
The party also brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the line of fire with another spokesman RPN Singh saying,"It is shocking that such a scandal has hit the country where 49 innocent lives have been lost. We still have not heard from the PM."
"A young girl who was choked to death by pressing her neck was claimed by the police to have died accidentally. The report now is in front of you which says it was a case of homicide.”
"So many young people involved in the case have developed heart disease. More than 25 people in the case have been crushed by trucks," Singh said.
