NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday talked tough for the first time since ordering CBI probe into all 185 Vyapam cases and 40 deaths allegedly related to it, and brushing aside the central agency’s request to allow Madhya Pradesh police to probe 73 cases of cheating in examinations.

Out of the 185 cases, the Special Task Force (STF) and Special Investigation Team (SIT) examined 55 cases and filed chargesheets in 49 cases while investigation was pending in 81 cases of which 73 related to cheating in examinations, solicitor general Ranjit Kumar told a bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy.

Kumar said the CBI had already taken up investigations into 12 deaths and registered preliminary enquiries (PEs) in 11 of them while in one, it had filed a regular case. He made two suggestions – one, the state police could probe the cases relating to cheating in examinations and, two, the CBI would look into those cases in which chargesheets were filed a little later, giving priority to uninvestigated cases.

The bench, which had directed the CBI to take over probe into Vyapam scam from July 13, said, “We do not want to hear all that. We want to know when you will take over investigations into all 185 cases. We do not want the state police to look into any of the cases relating to Vyapam after we have ordered CBI probe.”

The CBI had complained of lack of human resources. The bench asked the department of personnel and training’s counsel to be present in court on August 7 for the purpose of expeditiously filling up vacancies in the CBI as well as providing additional hands to probe the mega scam in Madhya Pradesh which attained notoriety after many accused died under mysterious circumstances.

The court also told the CBI that it could not be allowed to give lesser priority to those cases where the state police had already filed chargesheets. It said: “The CBI must look into these cases and find whether probe was done properly”. The SG agreed and said the CBI would keep open the option of filing additional charge-sheets in these cases.

Kumar said the CBI would take three to five weeks to completely take over Vyapam scam investigations. The bench kept the matter for hearing on August 27 and told the CBI, “We will give you three weeks to take over the probe. If on the next date you make substantial progress yet need more time, we may extend the deadline by another week.”

The SG informed the court that the Madhya Pradesh High Court had notified 20 special CBI courts to deal with the chargesheets and trial in 185 cases spread over various districts. He said five courts were notified in Bhopal, four in Gwalior and one each in other districts.

“Let the Vyapam related cases be assigned exclusively to special courts in Bhopal and Gwalior where it would be easier for the CBI to appoint prosecutors. It would be difficult to arrange for advocates as prosecutors in other places,” he said.

The court said given the spread of the Vyapam scam, the HC must have applied its mind to notify special courts at various places. “We will give you six weeks to appoint prosecutors but you must take over the investigations into the cases in three weeks,” it said.

