Bhopal, July 16: The Madhya Pradesh BJP today suspended a close associate of Shivraj Singh Chouhan for alleged involvement in the Vyapam scam, as initial investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation portended more trouble for the chief minister.

Ghulab Singh Kirar, a member of the state's backward classes commission, was among 160 people named in FIRs the central agency had registered yesterday.

A doctor by profession, Kirar comes from the same caste as Chouhan and heads a national body, the Kirar Kshatriya Mahasabha, a Rajput community group.

Whistleblowers had earlier accused the chief minister and some of his close aidesof involvement in the scandal, which relates to allegations of briberyand impersonation in exams to fill medical seats and recruit government staff.

The special task force, which probed the scam before the CBI took over this week, had earlier named Kirar as an accused in a medical test racket in Gwalior in July last year. He was accused of helping son Shakti Pratap - also named as an accused now - fraudulently crack the test in 2011.

Kirar, however, remained at large but, even as an absconder, was seen on a dais with Chouhan this March at an event barely 60km from Bhopal. "I don't become guilty just because there's an FIR against me," he had said then. "I have lived an honest life. I should be punished if evidence is found against me."

Well-placed BJP sources said state unit chief Nand Kumar Chouhan took the decision to suspend Kirar, following a directive from the central party to act against the influential leader who had reportedly refused to step down as member of the backward classes panel and surrender before the CBI.

But the haze over Kirar's continuation as panel member remained. State minister for general administration Lal Singh Arya said he was not sure, though Nand Kumar insisted Kirar had ceased to be a member as his association with the BJP was over.

CBI plea

The CBI today moved the Supreme Court with a plea to ensure that those accused in the scam don't get bail. Additional solicitor general Maninder Singh urged the bench, headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, to direct the STF to file chargesheets in cases where it had completed investigations.

"Your Lordships, the CBI will take at least four-five weeks to take over the cases. Let the STF file the other chargesheets. Otherwise, the accused will all get bail," Singh told the court.

Under Section 167(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, if a chargesheet isn't filed within 90 days, the accused have right of bail. The top court said it would examine the plea on July 20.

The plea came on a day the court issued a notice to Chouhan's government on two petitions seeking a CBI probe into controversial admissions in 2012-2014 to private medical and dental colleges where the government's quota accounted for 42 per cent of the seats.