India's Supreme Court has ordered an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into a "multimillion-dollar college admission and government job recruitment scandal" that has left close to 50 involved dead from mysterious circumstances, The Associated Press reports. Known as the "Vyapam scam," hundreds of parents and students in Madhya Pradesh state have been arrested for paying bribes or hiring proxies to take qualifying exams for top colleges and jobs as government teachers, doctors, bankers, and policemen. More than 2,500 have been accused in connection with the scam and 1,900 of that number have been arrested, according to NPR.
Nearly 50 witnesses or participants in the scam have died over the past five years. Last week, an investigative journalist who was interviewing witnesses in Madhya Pradesh died and the next day, the dean of a medical college was found dead in a hotel room. Many of the deaths have been ruled inconclusive in autopsies, with the home minister of the state claiming the deaths are due to "natural causes," despite many of the dead being under 40.
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