NEW DELHI — India's top court Thursday ordered a federal investigation into a multimillion-dollar college admission and government job recruitment scandal in central India said to be linked to dozens of mysterious deaths. The Supreme Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's FBI, to investigate the alleged irregularities in job recruitment and college admissions as well as the deaths of nearly 50 people associated with the scam. Police have arrested hundreds of officials for allegedly rigging eligibility tests for admission to medical colleges and recruitment for jobs in the police force, schools and banking sector in Madhya Pradesh state. Opposition Congress party leaders had been demanding a federal inquiry into the scandal as dozens of people, either witnesses or accused participants in the scam, have died over the last five years in inexplicable circumstances. Congress leaders have alleged that some top state bureaucrats and politicians accepted millions of dollars in bribes to facilitate the admissions. — AP
