BHOPAL: Days after whistleblower Prashant Pandey’s car was hit by a speeding truck on the Indore-Mhow road, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the multi-crore Vyapam scam appears to have hit a roadblock.

Lending credence to the growing belief among complainants that the announcement of a CBI inquiry may have been a well-timed ploy to stem the rising tide of public anger, a new fact has come to light.

The CBI team of over 40 sleuths, that was allotted a sprawling bungalow in the state Capital – B-10, Civil Lines – to probe the recruitment-admission scam is conspicuous by its absence from the scene. News reports filed as late as July 16, 2015, had claimed that the CBI team had “moved into the special office”.

However, on arriving at the bungalow, hoping to speak to investigators into the high-profile scam that has claimed nearly 50 lives till date, this reporter encountered a handful of labourers and a couple of constables instead!

The manual labourers were busy giving the reportedly ‘jinxed’, ‘unlucky’, ‘haunted’ government quarters a fresh coat of paint and installing new light fixtures; the two policemen were nonplussed to find a reporter at the scene. “The bungalow is being given a makeover. It should be ready for occupation by the CBI Team within a month,” said one of them. “Aap 100 number pe phone karke pooch leejiye ki CBI team kahan hai (Please dial 100 and ask them where the CBI team is),” replied the other, when this reporter asked him if the investigators were in town.

With the CBI office in Bhopal at Anveshan Parisar, Char Imli, being off limits – both for personal visits and telephonic queries -- for journalists, highly-placed sources in the administration conceded that the ‘enquiry’ may just end up being seen as a face-saving tactic, after all.

“It has helped the Chief Minister buy much-needed time. With the monsoon session over of Madhya Pradesh Assembly adjourned indefinitely over the Vyapam scam, nine days ahead of schedule, the scam accused can now chalk out their strategy at length,” said a retired investigating officer based in Bhopal.

On July 16, the CBI had reportedly registered the first five cases in the Vyapam scam. A CBI official in New Delhi had said the agency had named 21 candidates in the FIR in connection with the 2010 pre-medical test. All were booked under IPC sections related to cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and impersonation.

Vyapam (Vyavasayik Pariksha Mandal or Professional Examination Board) is an autonomous body of the Madhya Pradesh government, that conducts exams for admission into professional colleges and recruitment to government departments. In the last six years, over 7 million candidates have taken exams conducted by Vyapam.

The first Vyapam-related death occurred in 2009, when a medical student, accused by the police of being a middleman, died in mysterious circumstances in Indore. Over 500 scam accused are absconding, as on date.

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