Vyapam case: SIT chief says deaths not 'mysterious', but 'abnormal'

The series of deaths of those associated with the Vyapam scam do not look "mysterious" but come forth as "abnormal", the chief of Special Investigation Team (SIT) monitoring the probe into the case said today.
Justice (retired) Chandresh Bhushan told TV news channels that he has asked the Special Task Force (STF) constituted to probe the admission and recruitment scam to "enquire" into these cases and tell the SIT how "these fellows have died".

"I would not like to use that word (mysterious). I will say there are certain deaths and those deaths are not normal deaths... So, if they have any connection... I am only interested in knowing if there is any connection with Vyapam scam... I will call them abnormal deaths," he said. 

Bhushan said that till now the STF has not reported "any connection" of these deaths with the scam. The opposition parties have claimed that as many as 45 persons have died in connection with the scam while the official figure is over 25 since the investigation began into the case a few years ago.

"The STF is not probing these deaths and these deaths are being investigated by the local police concerned," he said.

"I have asked the STF to enquire into these deaths," Bhushan said, adding that "if any connection can be traced, then we will ask STF to further investigate." The SIT chief, a retired Judge of the High Court, said he would not like to make any specific comment on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's latest announcement that the state government would request the MP High Court to order a CBI probe into the alleged scam.

"We are just monitoring the probe as per the orders of the High Court and if the High Court decides some other agency would do it, (then) there is no question of any feeling on my part. I am not disappointed by the CBI probe announcement," he said when he was asked for his comments on the Chief Minister's latest move.