MPPEB scam: Sharma sent to four-day police remand

A local court today sent former minister Laxmikant Sharma to four days of police remand after his arrest in connection with the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam.
Sharma was arrested yesterday by the Special Task Force (STF), probing into the scam, from his residence in 74 Bungalows area here, following his alleged involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam.
The exam was conducted by MPPEB and Sharma was its Minister in-chagre in his capacity as the then Technical Education Minister in the last BJP government in the state.
Sharma was produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate Abhilasha Mawal, in the absence of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Pankaj Maheshwari, who remanded him to four days of police custody.

STF had demanded that the former minister should be sent to police remand till June 23, but court declined it's request and granted only four days remand.
Opposing the remand, Sharma's lawyer contended that STF has already questioned the former Minister in connection with the scam twice and also quizzed him yesterday.

Since he has been already interrogated, there is no need for granting any remand, he said.
The STF said it has to match the names of candidates against whom his name was mentioned following recovery of date from a hard disk, which was sent by the agency to the Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat) based forensic laboratory.

Hence, it needed time to question Sharma, but the court granted only four days remand.