PMT: Charge sheet filed against MPPEB officials, racketeers

Special Task Force today filed a charge sheet against 28 persons in connection with the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) scam allegedly involving Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) officials and racketeers.
The scam pertains to alleged nexus between the MPPEB officials and private members who connived together to secure admission for ineligible students in medical colleges across the state by charging hefty sums.
The charge sheet, running over 3,000 pages, was filed in the court of First Class Judicial Magistrate Manoj Kumar Ladiya, said District Prosecution Office Vimal Kumar Chhajed.
The charge sheet included names of Dr Jagdish Singh Sagar, Tarang Sharma and Santosh Gupta--alleged masterminds of three separate gangs---besides three officers of MPPEB, namely Ajay Sen, Chandrakant Mishra and Nitin Mahendra, he said.

The accused have been charged under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (making forged documents), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC besides IT Act and other related laws, Chhajed said.
The court has posted the hearing on the matter on October 19.

A list of 182 witnesses has been submitted by the prosecution.
The charge sheet excluded the then MPPEB Exam Controller Dr Pankaj Trivedi, as he is in police remand till October seven, according to Chhajed.
Trivedi, who was suspended by the State Governor on Friday, had been arrested from Bhopal on September 27.

Police said Trivedi had been charged with hobnobbing with racketeers who used unfair means to secure admission for several students in different medical colleges, they said.
The PMT was conducted on July 7.
The city police had exposed two such gangs that employed fraudulent means in PMT, sources said.
MPPEB officers, namely Sen, Mishra and Mahendra--since arrested--used to charge hefty sums from students to secure them admissions through fraudulent means, police had said.