Bhopal, July 13: Bhopal today witnessed two key arrivals and one departure, all somewhat linked to the Vyapam scam that has put the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in a spot.
Or "spotlight", as one of the arrivals, BJP national president Amit Shah, chose to call it.
At a meeting with party workers from Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Shah turned to state unit chief Nand Kumar Chouhan on the dais.
" Kaisi chal rahi hai sarkar (How's the government doing)?" he asked within reporters' earshot.
As Nand Kumar Chouhan (no relation to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) fumbled for an answer, Shah quipped: " Aajkal Madhya Pradesh kafi surkhiyon mein hai (These days the state is very much in the spotlight)."
That was Shah's lone public allusion to the scandal during his daylong trip that began in the morning.
The next arrival, in the afternoon, was a team of CBI sleuths led by joint director R.P. Aggarwal. Their assignment: a preliminary assessment of the Vyapam probe, so far conducted by the state police's special task force (STF) under high court monitoring.
"I won't disappoint the country with this investigation," Aggarwal promised reporters at Raja Bhoj Airport.
Aggarwal, an 1986-batch IPS officer, had investigated the high-profile 2011 case of "missing nurse" Bhanwari Devi in which a senior Rajasthan minister and an MLA have been accused of murder.
Last week, the Supreme Court had transferred the probe of all Vyapam cases, including the string of mysterious deaths linked to it, to the CBI.
At the meeting with party workers, Shah praised both state governments' functioning. He later met chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh separately, as well as other state ministers and party officials in small groups.
Sources said Shah urged party leaders from Madhya Pradesh to remain calm.
The key departure from Bhopal was that of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, who wrapped up his four-day visit that many believe was aimed at "damage control".
Sources said a "deeply hurt and incensed" Bhagwat had chided Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other state BJP leaders, asking how any Sangh-BJP functionary could figure among the accused.
The state Congress needled Bhagwat in a letter to him that said: "The RSS talks about high moral values - it's time you acted against the corrupt BJP government in Madhya Pradesh."
Local BJP sources said Bhagwat had reason to be upset, because the STF probe had unearthed several leads pointing to suspects within the Sangh and the BJP.
One of the 28 FIRs cites a mystery woman, referring to her as "Mantrani" who, police sources said quoting a key suspect, is "either a woman minister or a minister's wife".
According to the FIR, the STF has seized a hard disk from a computer used by two among the key accused, Pankaj Trivedi and Nitin Mohindra, which contains a list of people involved in the "buying and selling" of seats in government medical colleges.
There's also a reference to a certain "Uma" and a few local Sangh officials in the FIRs and case diaries that were handed over to Aggarwal this evening, the sources said.
The scandal involves large-scale cheating, with official connivance, in state exams for professional college seats and certain classes of government jobs over several years.
At least 26 accused and witnesses linked to the scam have died, many of them under suspicious circumstances. The scandal has put governor Ram Naresh Yadav's alleged role under the apex court's scanner and whistleblowers have accused the chief minister and his close aides of involvement.
