Vyapam scam's 'historic' court proceeding

The hearing in the Vyapam scam case that lasted almost 12 hours in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Court in Bhopal has been termed as a "historic" proceeding by CBI lawyer Satish Dinkar.

Speaking to ANI, Dinkar said, "It was indeed historic," adding, "There was a genuine reason behind the lengthy trial. Hearing all pleas and settling the case in a single proceeding is a great message about how much the honourable court is committed towards its work."

In the hearing that began at 3:00 pm on Thursday and continued till 2:41 a.m., the CBI Special Court issued arrest warrant against 592 accused persons in connection with the scam, granted bail to 15 accused who appeared before the court, on Rs 1 lakh bond, and rejected 30 interim bail plea applications.

The Vyapam scam is an admission and recruitment fraudulent scheme, beginning in 1995, involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB).

Earlier on October 31, the premier investigating agency had filed a charge sheet against 490 accused in a case relating to alleged irregularities in PMT-2013 Examination conducted by Vyapam, the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board.

A CBI investigation discovered that some racketeers, along with their accomplices, allegedly arranged solvers for beneficiary candidates in the said examination.

The pairing of respective solvers-beneficiaries was being done by the racketeers by getting the roll numbers of these solvers-beneficiary candidates manipulated through Vyapam officials, such that a beneficiary candidate was seated right behind his solver.

This enabled the beneficiary to cheat and copy the answers from solver.

It was further alleged that after the PMT 2012 results were declared, solver candidates were encouraged by the middlemen/ racketeer in conspiracy with the accused officials of the four Private Medical Colleges to opt for these four colleges during the counseling for PMT 2012.

It was also alleged that after allotment of the MBBS seat from state quota in the four Private Medical Colleges, these solver candidates did not take actual admission in these colleges.

The college administration and the college admission committee of these four Private Medical Colleges allegedly gave false information that these students had taken admission in the college.

This was done to block the state quota seats so that further counselling of successful candidates, who were next in the waiting list, was not done.

The solver students, who after counselling, had been allocated to these four Private Medical Colleges were allegedly given monetary payments through middlemen for vacating the seats.

Thereafter, these Private Medical College authorities admitted students of their own choice from without following the due process. Majority of the students, who were admitted, had not even taken the PMT Exam.