New Delhi: In a major breakthrough in the massive recruitment scam, the Supreme Court of India on Thursday handed over the Vyapam scam case and the investigation into all the deaths linked to it to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas and three of the four whistle-blowers of the MPPEB — Ashish Chaturvedi, Anand Rai and Prashant Pandey — had demanded that a SC-monitored CBI probe be ordered into the case for fair trial.

The petition was filed after several people linked to the scam died, and many alleged loopholes were cited in the previous investigations.

The SC has issued notices to the Centre, Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav and the MP government after hearing the petition filed against Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order to quash the investigation against those who were accused in the Vyapam scam.

The top court has given four-week time to all to respond to the notice.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had appealed with the High Court to transfer the case from state Special Investigation Team (SIT) to CBI, said he will support the pleas seeking CBI probe into the massive admission and recruitment scam in the Supreme Court as well.

On Wednesday, a division Bench of HC headed by Chief Justice AM Khankilwar deferred the hearing till 20 July saying that it will hear the case only after the top court declares its verdict on it.

At present, Special Task Force under the supervision of the SIT of Madhya Pradesh police is investigating the case, which is being monitored by the HC.

However, a series of deaths reported in the last few days prompted the demand for SC-monitored CBI probe.

The demand grew intense when the death case of scam-accused Namrata Damor came to the fore following Aaj Tak Special Correspondent Akshay Singh’s mysterious death on Saturday soon after interviewing her parents in Madhya Pardesh.

The Ujjain police in Madhya Pradesh re-opened the case after four people linked to the scam died under mysterious circumstances in the last few days.

Damor’s death was concluded as suicide by the police in their closure report, submitted last year. However, the investigation remained inconclusive as the autopsy report had suggested that it was a ‘homicidal’ death caused by ‘violent asphyxia as a result of smothering’.

In yet another revelation made by NDTV, which accessed the police document, it has come to fore that even though Yadav was the accused number 10 in the FIR, he was never interrogated.

According to the report, STF had in the FIR alleged that Yadav and his son accepted bribes to allow 10 candidates to cheat in the entrance exam for government teachers.