Mystery woman rises in Vyapam scam, FIR refers to Mantrani in multi-crore scam

New Delhi: The killer Vyapam scam took a new twist on Saturday with the emergence of a mystery woman. An FIR by the Madhya Pradesh’s Special Task Force (STF) has made a coded reference to a “mantrani (lady minister or a minister’s wife)”.

According to a news channel, the reference is based on data recovered from the two accused in the case — Pankaj Trivedi and Nitin Mohindra. Facing an Opposition onslaught over the scam and under pressure to quit, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday shared the dais with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at a book release function in Bhopal. Some local channels reported that the two held a meeting to discuss the Vyapam issue.

The state police’s STF confiscated hard disks from Mr Trivedi’s computer which have Excel sheets detailing a list of those allegedly involved in the buying and selling of seats in government medical colleges in the state. In one of the columns is the entry “Mantrani”, reported the news channel.

According to the FIR, Mr Trivedi told investigators that “Mantrani” was either a “female minister or a minister’s wife”. Earlier, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh had tried to drag the Chief Minister’s wife into the controversy by saying that she had links with a key accused in the scam.