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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Oct 31, 2018, 07:05 AM IST
The Vyapam scam, which first came to light in 2012, is replete with twists and turns. Now a local court in Bhopal has ordered the police to immediately register an FIR against senior Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia and a Right To Information activist on charges of “fabricating evidence”.
These charges were levelled by a lawyer in response to Digvijaya’s allegations that crucial evidence against CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union minister Uma Bharti, and a few others have been removed. With Madhya Pradesh going to polls, the importance of Vyapam in a charged atmosphere cannot be overstated.
Both sides, the Congress and the BJP, are trading charges over a case that is far from getting resolved. The Vyapam scam has dragged on, with the CBI chargesheeting 500 people. Some 48 people connected to the scam have died mysteriously.
While the BJP stands solidly behind Chouhan, the Congress has increased the intensity of the attacks against the chief minister. However, the CBI, which took over the charge of the investigations following a Supreme Court order, had given Chouhan a clean chit.
It is not that the Vyapam scam continues to dominate public consciousness, but a desperate Congress, clutching at the straws, wants to turn it into a big poll issue. The Congress is in a piquant situation. The party had vociferously demanded a CBI probe and the same investigating agency had found nothing incriminating against the CM.
At this point, it seems that the tables have turned on the Congress with the judge directing the police to complete the investigations and submit the final report on November 13. The grand old party needs to recalibrate its strategies if it wants to wrest power from the BJP in the state.
