India’s already sensational Vyapam scam is progressively turning into a massive whodunit mystery too, as both bribery suspects and those attempting to apprehend them have begun dropping like flies.
Since the cheating scandal was uncovered in 2007, over a dozen prominent scammers and would be scam-busters of various age and rank have died of causes ranging from sudden death and hanging to mutilation and drowning.
And now the controversy also threatens to kill the careers and reputations of government officials perceived as having been looking the wrong way and allowing the systemic fraud to spread like a cancer, or of being corrupt themselves.
Named for the once-esteemed examination board that conducts professional-entry tests, the infamous Vyapam scam involves examiners allowing hundreds of selected medical students and other governmental candidates to cheat during their final exams.
In fact, many such “recruits” were permitted to hire proxies to take the difficult tests for them, or even paid for passing scores if they outright failed the tests.
The substantial number of related arrests -- and suspicious deaths -- began, however, not when the matter first quietly broke, but as the investigation gained momentum and, thereby, national attention.
By 2013, some task-force investigators were claiming that thousands of India’s doctors, police officers, safety inspectors, educators, and other vital professionals, had participated in the coordinated scheme to fraudulently obtain their licenses and cushy jobs.
From examinees to administrators, that’s when people really started dying…
This year, a governor’s son, a dogged reporter, a college dean, and an examiner-in-training have each joined the ranks of Vypam’s curiously and conveniently deceased -- three of those victims within the span of just a few hours.
But with the whole wide world now watching India’s deadly drama unfolding, the Vyapam corruption probe continues, nevertheless.
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