Bhopal: A whistle-blower of the infamous Vyapam scam on Wednesday afternoon attempted to immolate himself in front of the convoy of outgoing Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. The whistle-blower was demanding the governor’s arrest for his alleged involvement in the scandal.
Manoj Tripathy, 30 is one of the whistle-blowers of the Vyapam scam that hogged national limelight following death of 43 people directly or indirectly linked to it during the course of the investigation into the scandal by various probe agencies in the last three years.
On Wednesday, he suddenly appeared in front of the main gate of Raj Bhawan here and set himself on fire when Mr Yadav’s convoy was heading towards the state hangar to fly him to Lucknow, his home town. Mr Yadav’s tenure as Governor of MP, marred by controversies, ended on Wednesday.
Taking security forces deployed there by surprise, the right to information (RTI) activist suddenly set himself ablaze and shouted slogans demanding Mr Yadav’s arrest for his alleged role in the Vyapam scam involving irregularities in admissions in medical colleges in the state and appointments in government jobs. Policemen caught hold of him and extinguished the fire.
He was later arrested for causing breach in the VVIP security. Last year, special task force constituted by the MP High Court to probe the scam, filed an FIR against Mr Yadav on charges of rigging the forest guard recruitment examination.
He was booked under the Information Technology Act and Prevention of Corruption Act. The immunity he enjoyed due to occupying the constitutional position so far has prevented the investigation agencies from bringing him under the purview of inquiry. Meanwhile, Gujarat Governor O.P. Kohli was scheduled to be administered oath as Governor of MP too on Thursday.
