Buoyed by CBI's clean chit to him in the Vyapam scam case, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today said since he had done no wrong, the agency cleared his name.
The state BJP is planning to file a defamation case against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and others who had alleged that data on the hard disk had reference to "CM", which was erased.
"I was clean, so a clean chit was inevitable. In public life, allegations are levelled, but they should be based on facts. Such (baseless) charges pain the person. I am not worried much, as I was relieved from the beginning," Chouhan told reporters here, reacting to the development.
The Central investigation agency, which filed the charge sheet in a Bhopal court yesterday, said, "There is no grain of truth in the allegation that the HDD (hard disk drive) seized on July 18, 2013 from the office of the then principal system analyst, Vyapam was tampered".
It filed the charge sheet against 490 persons including three Vyapam officials, three racketeers, 17 middlemen, 297 "solver" (impersonators or 'dummies' of real candidates in exams) and beneficiary candidates (who benefited from such impersonation) and 170 guardians of beneficiary candidates in the court of the special judge for Vyapam cases, Bhopal, last evening.
The CBI is probing a case related to alleged irregularities in the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) 2013 conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, also known by its Hindi acronym 'Vyapam'.
It is alleged that 'solvers' were arranged for candidates appearing for PMT for a fee.
"In the charge sheet, the CBI also submitted its findings on the allegations of tampering of the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) that had been seized by the MP Police. Based on the CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) reports and other evidence gathered during investigation, the CBI has concluded that there was no tampering in the HDD," a CBI release said.
State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan said allegations of tampering was an attempt to tarnish the image of a popular chief minister and for this, the BJP will not spare anyone.
"After taking lawyers' opinion, we will file a defamation case against Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh and others," he said in a statement.
The CBI yesterday claimed that forensic analysis of the hard disc showed there was no file carrying the word "CM" ever stored on it.
Digvijaya Singh and whistle blower Prashant Pandey had alleged that the word "CM" found in the files in the computer of accused Nitin Mohindra was deleted or changed.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)