Vyapam scam: Roll numbers of 700 changed

The roll numbers of 700 candidates in the 2012 Madhya Pradesh Pre-Medical Test were changed by a gang that guaranteed success in the competitive examination, documents reveal.

At least 300 of them were eventually selected, out of which 150 took admissions in government medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh. Around 40,000 candidates appeared in the test that year.

"The revelations came from the documents filed by the Special Task Force (STF) in the Madhya Pradesh High Court," Abhay Chopra, who had filed a public interest petition against the Vyapam scam, told IANS on Thursday.

The STF had filed the documents on January 28, 2014, Chopra said.

Chopra's PIL at the Indore bench of the high court in September 2013 was later transferred to Jabalpur.

The STF even wrote to the Madhya Pradesh health department to inform that 150 of these tainted candidates who took admission in government medical colleges had been booked.

The Vyavsayik Preeksha Mandal or Vyapam conducts PMT every year in Madhya Pradesh to fill up 1,250 seats in government and private medical colleges in the state, including 800 in state-run medical colleges.

The Crime Branch in Indore busted a gang that got the candidates clear the PMT in July 2013 with the help of dummy candidates who actually solved the paper.

The alleged racket's mastermind, Jagdish Sagar, in connivance with Vyapam officials manipulated the roll numbers in such a manner that all these candidates sat in one room during the test.

When the Supreme Court handed over the Vyapam cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 9, the STF had already registered 55 cases and arrested 2,100 accused. In all, 491 accused are still absconding. The STF has filed chargesheets against 1,200 accused so far.

The STF was assigned the task of probing the scam in August 2013 after the matter came to light in July 2013.