BHOPAL: Dead trail in MPPEB scam continues as TOI tracks more students who died mysteriously after being booked by the special task force investigating the scam. Final year medical student Lalit Kumar Golaria, 28, was found dead under a bridge in Morena district on January 16 this year.

He was a key link in the inter-state gang involved in pumping proxies for medical entrance examinations across India. Whistle-blowers Anand Rai and Ashish Chaturvedi have demanded separate probes into the deaths.

While police shut investigations into his death, calling it suicide due to depression, family members said Lalit lived in fear. “We don’t know if he jumped off the bridge or was pushed by someone. He was worried about something, which he never discussed with us,” a family member told TOI. Lalit’s parents received an call for money from him, just two hours before police called them to inform about his death.

Lalit was booked in MPPEB scam by special investigation team (SIT) of Gwalior police on January 13, 2014. He was was then in his final year MBBS course at Gajra Raja Medical College (GRMC), Gwalior.

In 2013, GRMC committee listed him among 19 students who they said used unfair means to clear examinations. All of them were sacked in 2014 and their cases forwarded to Gwalior SIT for further probe. Lalit was arrested and then released on bail on January 4, this year, said sources.

On January 15, Morena police called his family to inform that he had committed suicide and has left behind a note, requesting donation of his body to the medical college for anatomy study.

“He came to the bridge on Saakh river in Morena on a bike, left a suicide note and jumped into the river,” sub-inspector of Noorabad police station K Khan told TOI. He also wrote in his suicide note that none should be blamed for his death. Lalit was survived by his wife and five-year-old son.

Khan, however, could not come clear if he came across eyewitnesses to bolster the suicide theory. Lalit, had in his note, apologised to his wife and son for taking the extreme step and asked brothers to take care of them, said police. His father was employed with office of accountant general (AG) and died recently.

After initial investigations, police said he was reeling under depression after his name surfaced in the scam. He had called his brother a week before his death and demanded Rs 8000. “He also asked for Rs 3000, a few hours before he committed suicide,” said police. Due to his death, SIT could not proceed investigations against the recruitment syndicate which facilitated him with an impersonator in PMT, 2006.

