to Congress' allegations that his wife had got jobs for 17 of her relatives from Gondia, he pointed out that not a single candidate from Gondia had got the job in the question. Deaths A number of people connected to the scam and its investigation, died during the course of investigation. The opposition parties and activists alleged that several of these deaths happened under suspicious circumstances. In 2015, the Special Task Force (STF) submitted a list to Jabalpur High Court, naming 23 people who are believed to have died "unnatural death". According to the STF, most of these deaths took place before it took over the investigation in July 2013. Some media reports claimed that 40+ people associated with the scam had died under mysterious circumstances. The State Government dismissed the allegations, arguing that Vyapam conducts very large-scale examinations and thousands of people are admitted or recruited through these exams every year. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan insisted that death of every person linked with Vyapam exams should not be linked to the Vyapam scam. The state's Home Minister Babulal Gaur claimed that the deaths were "natural". According to whistleblower Anand Rai, 10 of these deaths are suspicious, while the rest might be coincidences. The deaths considered as suspicious by him include the deaths of Akshay Singh, Namarata Damor, Narendra Tomar, D K Sakkale, Arun Sharma, Rajendra Arya and four middlemen who died in road accidents. According to the High-Court Special Investigation Team (SIT), 32 people in 25-30 age-group identified as 'racketeers' during the investigation, died in suspicious circumstances since the investigation started in 2012. The SIT officials raised concerns that the arrested people were naming those who were already dead, in order to mislead the probe. The following is a list of "unnatural deaths" mentioned in the STF and SIT records, plus other deaths alleged to be "suspicious" by the opposition parties and the media. Vikas Pandey Ravindra Pratap Singh Dr. DK Sakalley Narendra Rajput Lalit Golaria Gyan Singh Jatav Deepak Verma Namrata Damor Pramod Sharma Kuldeep Marawi Premlata Pandey Vikas Singh Thakur Shyamvir Yadav Anshul Sachan Anuj Uikey Deepak Jain Dinesh Jatav Aditya Chaudhary Anant Ram Tagore Arvind Shakya Ashutosh Tiwari Tarun Macchar Anand Singh Yadav Devendra Nagar Bunty Sikarwar Amit Sagar Sanjay Singh Yadav Shailesh Yadav Vijay Singh Patel Narendra Singh Tomar Rajendra Arya Akshay Singh Dr Arun Sharma Anamika Kushwaha Ramakant Pandey Ramendra Singh Bhadoria Other