Bhopal: The Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh turned murkier on Saturday with an investigative journalist working for a leading Delhi-based news channel dying under mysterious circumstances soon after he interviewed the parents of a girl who was found dead after her name figured in the massive admission and recruitment scandal.
The incident took place in Meghnagar near Jhabua town. The reporter Akshay Singh, employed with the India Today Group, had on Saturday called on the parents of Namrata Damor, whose body had been found under mysterious circumstances near railway tracks in Ujjain district.
Namrata's father Mehtab Singh Damor said Akshay and two others visited their house on Saturday afternoon. After the interview was over, someone was sent to get some papers photocopied.
As Akshay was waiting outside Damor's house, suddenly he started frothing at the mouth. He was rushed to civil hospital and later to a private hospital, but doctors failed to revive him. From there he was taken to another hospital in nearby Dahod in Gujarat, where he was declared brought dead.
Jhabua district's Superintendent of Police Abid Khan confirmed that a person named Akshay Singh had died in Meghnagar.
The India Today Group on Saturday evening issued a statement, "The India Today group is deeply saddened by the untimely demise of Akshay Singh. Akshay had been working with Aaj Tak as a Special Correspondent since December 2013. Akshay worked with the Special Investigation Team of Aaj Tak. He was an enterprising journalist who had many hard hitting investigations to his credit. He had been on an assignment in Madhya Pradesh investigating the Vyapam scam for the past four days. The cause of his sudden demise is not yet clear. We mourn the death of our valued colleague. Our thoughts and prayers are with Akshay's family. We hope that doctors and law enforcement agencies are able to establish the cause of Akshay's death."
Calling the incident unfortunate, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "It's unfortunate. The moment we got the information we extended all the help. Postmortem report will be out soon."
Training guns at Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "We want his death to be probed through an independent judicial enquiry. Why is the BJP not supporting judicial enquiry?"
After 44 deaths in two years in the mysterious Vyapam scam, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh had asked for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe under the monitoring of Supreme Court.
The Congress leader filed a petition in the apex court, seeking an SC-monitored CBI investigation into the Vyapam scam, which has snowballed into a huge mystery.
The Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the scandal had submitted to the MP High Court that 23 deceased in the MPPEB scam had died unnatural deaths so far.
Refusing to order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the deaths, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babu Lal Gaur claimed that the deaths have no connection to the Vyapam scam.
The most high-profile death in connected with case has been been that of Shailesh Yadav, son of Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. Shailesh (50) was found dead at his father's residence in Mall Avenue area of Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on March 25 in 2015.
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