Vyapam scam: MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan root of scam, says Kapil Sibal

Sibal, a senior lawyer who is assisting Singh in the matter, alleged that the entry on the “CM” had featured at least 48 times in the ‘original excel sheet’, while names of Uma Bharati was also on the list along with other entries, like “Minister 1” and “Minister 2”.

He claimed the Indore Police had taken the hard disk, seized from the main accused in the case, to technological expert Prashant Pandey, because they were clueless about how to retrieve data from it. While demonstrating how to do it, Pandey had managed to get the data transferred to his personal computer, Sibal said.

When the police realised that important persons had figured on the list, Sibal claimed, they took it to senior officers and later the excel sheet, retrieved from the hard disk, was tampered with to remove the name of the “CM”. He claimed that though the hard disk had been seized on July 17, 2017, the police showed the time of the seizure as 4.30 pm on July 18. He also alleged that a top-level meeting had been held before the document was tampered took place.

“More than 3,000 accused in the Vyapam scam are being prosecuted, but not the “apradh ki jad (the root of crime),” Sibal said, adding that a Hyderabad-based laboratory had confirmed tampering in the excel sheet.

MP Cabinet Minister Narottam Mishra said the Congress had leveled the same allegations in the past. “When they should be going to people (ahead of elections) they are going to the court… They have been at it for more than a decade, but have failed to damage him (the CM),” he said.