Reports of death of 41 Vyapam accused baseless: MP government

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday termed the media reports of death of 41 accused in VYAPAM scam as totally baseless, and said that since it was exposed on July 7, 2013, only 14 persons involved in the scam had died while 11 others had died prior to that.

Health Minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra also clarified that of the 14 who died after the scam was exposed, four died outside Madhya Pradesh, and the police of concerned states hadn't found any conspiracy behind the deaths.

In a statement here, Mishra termed the media reports of death of 41 accused "misleading and far away from truth". "Neither any newspaper nor the opposition have so far provided the list of these 41 deaths," he added.

Of the 14 dead accused, six were killed in accidents, two committed suicide and six died of illness, he said. In the eight cases of unnatural deaths -- accidents and suicide -- the concerned police stations had submitted probe report in the court and have not found any conspiracy, he said.

The minister also said that among the 25 deaths (prior to the scam and after July 7, 2013) neither the family members of 24 deceased persons or anyone else had expressed any suspicion about the cause.

Referring to the death of Narendra Singh Tomar in Indore's M Y Hospital on June 28, Mishra said on June 27 Tomar had complained of chest pain, following which jail administration admitted him immediately in the ICU ward of M Y Hospital and he passed away during the treatment.

"In this case also magisterial probe is going on." A status report on the death of 23 persons related to VYAPAM scam had been submitted to the High Court which is monitoring the probe, he said.

The High Court had praised the special task force (of state police) for its probe, and also constituted an SIT comprising a retired High Court Judge, a retired IPS officer and an IT/cyber expert to oversee the investigation. It rejected the demand for a CBI probe, the minister stated.

Mishra further said that a total of 55 cases related to Vyapam scam were registered and out of 2500 persons involved in it, nearly 2000 were arrested.