Vyapam scam: CBI files charges against 592 accused

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed charges against 592 accused, including the chairmen of four private medical colleges, in the MP Pre Medical Test 2012 scam, one of the key cases of the multi-layered Vyapam scam.

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 Rs1 lakh bond, and rejected 30 interim bail plea applications.

The charges filed in a special CBI court in Bhopal names 334 candidates, 155 parents and guardians, 46 invigilators at examination centres in Bhopal and Indore, two officials of the department of medical education, 22 middlemen and racketeers, and 26 officials of four private medical colleges.

Of the 592 accused, 347 have been charged for the second time. They were earlier charged by MP police STF before CBI took up the probe in 2015.

The remaining 245 who have been charged for the first time include Ajay Goenka, S N Vijayvargiya, JN Chowkse and S S Bhadauria, who head the four private medical colleges which auctioned their seats for heavy sums to ineligible candidates.

As per the charge sheet, of the 286 state government quota seats (which formed 42.5 per cent of the total seats) in four private medical colleges in Bhopal and Indore, 229 seats were up for sale.

The four medical colleges are the Peoples Medical College, Chirayu Medical College, and L N Medical College in Bhopal, and Index Medical College in Indore.

The charge sheet says the middlemen arranged solvers, who were students from medical colleges in UP and Bihar or those preparing for medical entrance examinations at private coaching centres. These solvers were made to appear as candidates in the PMT 2012 entrance test.

After the allotment of MBBS seats 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 seats in these four private medical colleges were allegedly given monetary payments through middlemen for vacating the seats.

Thereafter, these private medical colleges admitted students of their own choice without following the due process. Majority of the students, who were admitted, had not even taken the PMT Exam.

Instead of opting for government medical colleges in the state, the solvers opted for only the four private medical colleges in Bhopal and Indore.

The accused, in collusion with officials of Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (MP Professional Examination Board), ensured that the solvers were seated close to beneficiary candidates, whose guardians had paid the racketeers.

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).