Another Vyapam scam-related death? Ex-observer for recruitment tests found dead on tracks

More than three months after multiple deaths in the Vyapam scam hit the national headlines, yet another death has been linked to the controversy, bringing it back to the spotlight. The  Hindustan Times reported that the body of a retired IFS officer, Vijay Bahadur, was found on a railway track in Jharsuguda in Odisha. [caption id=“attachment_2472396” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image courtesy: Vyapam website[/caption] Bahadur was said to have worked as an observer for two recruitment tests in the Vyapam scam. The Pioneer reported that he had been a member of several committees between 2010 and 2013, including the question paper selection committee and the answer sheets valuation committee. However, it is not clear in what way he was connected to the alleged corruption in the recruitment examination conducted by the authority. According to the report, Bahadur was returning to Bhopal from Puri after attending a reunion of 1978 batch IFS officers. Zee News quoted a senior railway police official as saying that prima facie, it seemed that he died after falling from a moving train. However, the post-mortem report in the case is said to be awaited. Bahadur’s death is similar to the death of Namrata Damor , a second year student in medical college, who was linked closely to the Vyapam scam. Damor had gone missing in 2012, after which a missing complaint was filed. While the police had found an unidentified, mutilated body on the railway tracks in Ujjain on the same day, but no one had claimed her body then. However, later, her brother, had identified her photo, after which the body was exhumed. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had noted that no new deaths had been reported in the alleged scam after it directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over investigation in the case, as reported by the Indian Express. However, the death of Bahadur seems to have only made the case murkier.