Balibabu Posted July 8, 2015 Report Posted July 8, 2015 The Vyapam scam is an admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), popularly known by its Hindi acronym "Vyapam", is a government body responsible for conducting several entrance tests in the state. These entrance tests are used for recruitment to government jobs and for admissions to educational institutes in the state. The scam involved a collusion of undeserving candidates, who bribed politicians and MPPEB officials through middlemen, to get high ranks in these entrance tests. Cases of irregularities in these entrance tests had been reported since the mid-1990s, and the first FIR was filed in 2000. However, until 2009, such cases were not thought to be part of an organized ring. When major complaints surfaced in the pre-medical test (PMT) in 2009, the state government established a committee to investigate the matter. The commitee released its report in 2011, and over a hundred people were arrested by the police. A Special Task Force (STF) was established in 2012. The sheer scale of the scam came to light in 2013, when the Indore police arrested 20 people who had come to impersonate candidates for PMT 2009. The interrogation of these people led to the arrest of Jagdish Sagar, the leader of an organized racket involved in the scam. Subsequent interrogations and arrests uncovered the involvement of several politicians, bureaucrats, MPPEB officials, racket leaders, middlemen, candidates and their parents in the scam. By June 2015, more than 2000 people had been arrested in connection with the scam. These included the state's ex-education minister Laxmikant Sharma and over a hundred politicians. The scam Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), also known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam, is a self-financed and autonomous body incorporated by the State government. It is entrusted with the responsibility to conduct large-scale competitive tests for admission to various professional courses and for recruitment to government jobs.[1] Modus operandi The scam involved a collusion among exam candidates, government officials and middlemen: undeserving candidates were offered high marks in the exams, in exchange for kickbacks. According to the whistleblower exposing the scam, the following tricks were used by those involved in the scam:[2] Impersonation – The admit card of the candidate was used to execute the trick. All the information of the candidate remained intact except the photograph. Candidate’s photograph was replaced by that of the impersonator and after the exam, it was changed back to the original. All this was done in collusion with the corrupt Board officials. The impersonator was always some brilliant student and used to get hefty amount to secure the seat. Engine and bogie system – A person was strategically seated adjacent to the candidate. The person let them copy from his sheet or exchanged the sheet at the end of the exam. OMR sheets – The select candidates were asked to leave their answer sheets blank. They were randomly given high percentages after the exam. Concerned authorities of the Board then filed an RTI demanding to view those answer sheets. They then filled in the answers in the OMR booklet according to the marks they have already been given. This was done so that if someone were to ever check those answer sheets, there would not be any loopholes that could give them away. Vyapam admitted in the High Court that 1020 forms were missing and 346 imposters had appeared in the exam. Vyapam officials admitted in the court that 1120 candidates appeared in the exam but their forms were missing because Vyapam official and accused Nitin Mahendra had tampered with the Computers in which the records were stored. The STF has presented charge-sheet against 28 accused, including Jagdish Sagar, in Indore Court. The fact that the charge-sheet includes details of 3292 different offences and more than 92,176 documents is indicative of the enormity of the scam. Unearthing of the scam Cases of malpractices in Vyapam scam had been reported since 1995, and the first FIR was found in 2000 in Chhatarpur district. In 2004, seven cases were registered in Khandwa district. However, such reports of malpractice were seen as isolated cases.[3] 2009-11: Initial probe by committee A report by the Madhya Pradesh Local Fund Audit office for 2007-08 found several financial and administrative irregularities in MPPEB, including unauthorized disposal of application forms.[3] It was suspected that the application forms were being destroyed so that they could not be compared to exam admit cards and other records. In 2009, fresh complaints of irregularities in the pre-medical test (PMT) surfaced.[4] Indore-based activist Anand Rai filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) requesting investigation into the scam.[5] In 2009, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan set up a committee headed by the State Joint Director of Medical Education to probe the allegations.[6] In July 2011, MPPEB monitored 145 suspects during the Pre-Medical Test (PMT). Most of the suspects did not turn up, but 8 were caught for impersonating others. This included Kanpur-based Satyendra Varma, who had accepted ₹ 4 lakh to appear in place of Ashish Yadav, in Indore.[7] 15 exam toppers from the previous year appeared for the exam. Suspecting that these people were called in to impersonate others or to help candidates cheat by sitting adjacent to them, MPPEB asked them to explain their reasons for re-taking the exams. MPPEB also started using biometric technology: thumb impressions and photographs of all the persons appearing for the exam were taken to be matched during the post-results counselling.[8] The committee set up by Chouhan in 2009 submitted its report to the government in November 2011. It mentioned that 114 candidates had passed PMT using impersonation. The candidates, mostly from rich families, had been impersonated by practicing doctors and talented medical students, some of whom had come from neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The middlemen had charged each candidate ₹ 1-4 million. The findings raised concern that several fake doctors might admitted through PMT in earlier years might have graduated as practitioners. The possibility of government officials being involved in the scam was also mentioned.[9] In December 2011, the MP Government announced that all the students who had gained admissions by fraudulent means would be asked to quit their courses. This included those who had already spent some years taking the course.[8] In 2012, Indore police arrested 4 people who had come to impersonate candidates in the PMT exam. The arrested had been promised sums ranging from ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 each.[10] 2013 MP-PMT exam The massive scale of the Vyapam scam came to light in 2013. On the night of 6-7 July, the Indore police arrested 20 people from various city hotels. These people, 17 of whom were from Uttar Pradesh, had come to impersonate local candidates in the PMT exam scheduled on 7 July 2013.[11] The impersonators had been promised sums ranging from ₹ 50,000 to ₹ 100,000.[10] Based on information collected during the interrogation of these 20 impersonators, Indore police found out that an organized racket headed by Jagdish Sagar was involved in the scam. After the arrests and the revealtion, Dr. Anand Rai submitted a complaint to the local Superintendent of Police (economic offence wing), seeking a detailed investigation. He sought probe into the role of MPPEB's chairman, exam controller, assistant controller and deputy controller.[12] On 13 July, Jagdish Sagar was arrested in Mumbai.[13] A list containing names of 317 students was confiscated from him. MPPEB's exam controller Pankaj Trivedi, who was not a suspect in the scam at that time, tried to protect these students. He sent a letter to various government departments and the deans of medical colleges, insisting that these students should be allowed admission once they sign an affidavit. The affidavit would state that they didn't use any unfair means, and that their admissions would be canceled if they were found guilty in the police investigations. On 28 September 2013, Trivedi was also arrested, based on Jagdish Sagar's interrogation.[14] On 5 October, the Special Task Force (STF) of the police chargesheeted 28 people, including Jagdish Sagar. In December 2013, the STF produced a 23,000-page supplementary chargesheet against 34 accused in the Indore district court. Out of these 34 accused chargesheeted, 30 were students and their guardians. Four others included Pankaj Trivedi, Dr. Sanjeev Shilpkar and Dr. Jagdish Sagar's accomplice Gangaram Pipliya.[11] Other exams probed In November 2013, the STF found that the scamsters had rigged five recruitment tests: Pre-PG, Food Inspector Selection Test, Milk Federation test, Subedar-Sub Inspector and Platoon Commander Selection Test and Police Constable Recruitment Test - all held during 2012 for government jobs in the state. For Pre-PG Test of 2012, MPPEB's former examination controller Dr Pankaj Trivedi and its system analyst Nitin Mahindra provided model answer keys to candidates through photocopies. For the other four exams, the Vyapam officials manipulated the OMR answer sheets by taking them out of the strong room. Different FIRs against 153 people, including Sudhir Sharma, were filed. Sharma had earlier been interrogated by CBI in mining scam of Madhya Pradesh.[15] In March 2014, the government announced that the STF was investigating rigging of nine examinations, and 127 people had been arrested.[16] The previous years' PMT exams were also investigated. The STF found that 286 candidates had cleared PMT-2012 through fraudulent means. On 29 April 2014, 27 students of MGM Medical College in Indore were expelled for having used fraudulent means to clear PMT-2012.[17] In June 2014, the High Court asked the police why several of the accused in the case had not been arrested yet. Following this, the STF made several arrests. On 15 June, the STF arrested the state's former technical education minister and BJP leader Laxmikant Sharma for his alleged involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam. On 18 and 19 June 2014, the police arrested over 100 medical students from different parts of the state, for their involvement in the PMT scam.[18] In September 2014, the STF revealed that Jagdish Sagar's racket had also rigged the entrance exams for recruitment in SBI and other nationalized banks. These entrance exams included the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection's exams and the SBI Probationary Officer's exam.[19] Response to scam The Madhya Pradesh Government formed a Special Task Force (STF) to investigate the scam in 2012. The Congress-led opposition expressed concern over impartiality of the STF and demanded a CBI probe, but the government declined to comply with this demand. The opposition also pressed for resignation of the Chief Minister on moral grounds in view of alleged involvement of his ministers and relatives.[20][21] On the other hand, the Chief Minister had termed it as “mudslinging” by the opposition due to the defeat in Lok Sabha election 2014.[22] On November 5, 2014, Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected the Congress leader Digvijay Singh's petition for CBI probe and instead ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to act as a watchdog for the court.[23] The SIT is a 3-member team chaired by Justice Chandresh Bhushan, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Key arrests By June 2015, more than 2000 people had been arrested in connection with the scam.[24] Politicians and bureaucrats Laxmikant Sharma, ex-Education Minister (M.P) Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Laxmikant Sharma was the in-charge of MPPEB in his capacity as the state's Technical Education Minister. He was initially arrested for his involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam, based on the information recovered from the Excel sheet maintained by Nitin Mohindra. Later, he was also booked for irregularities in the constables recruitment examinations; according to the STF, he recommended names of at least 15 candidates for recruitment as constables.[25] He resigned from BJP in June 2014, after being sent to four days police remand.[26] Sharma claimed innocence, placing the blame on his officer OP Shukla, and pointed out that his own daughter had failed PMT twice.[27] O. P. Shukla He was posted as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with then Technical Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma. Soon after the investigations gained momentum, he went underground and surrendered two months after the investigation team released a lookout notice for him. He allegedly took 8.5 million (85 lakhs) Rupees from the candidates for clearing the medical entrance test.[28] Sudhir Sharma A mining businessman, Sudhir Sharma was once an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the education minister Laxmikant Sharma. He was involved in police constable recruitment examination scam of 2012. After absconding initially, he surrendered to the STF in December 2013.[29] The STF questioned him twice, but did not arrest him at the time. After STF found prosecutable evidence against him, he again went missing. The STF announced a cash reward of ₹ 5000 for information on him.[30] He surrendered before the court in 2014, and was arrested by the STF.[31] R. K. Shivhare, Suspended IPS Officer He is an accused for his alleged involvement in the recruitment of sub-inspector and platoon commander examination of 2012 conducted by Vyapam. He is also an accused in getting his daughter and son-in-law admitted in the medical college by fraudulent means. When the probe agency registered a case against him, he was suspended but evaded arrest. He was declared absconder and a reward or Rs. 3000 was put against him. He later surrendered on April 21, 2014.[32] Ravikant Dwivedi, Suspended Joint Commissioner (Revenue) He was arrested for getting his son admitted into one of the premiere medical colleges through unfair means. Later, the state anti-corruption wing raided his house and found cash, jewellery, property worth Rs. 600-700 million.[33] Racket leaders Several organized rackets were involved in the Vyapam scam. These included the gangs led by Dr. Jagdish Sagar, Dr. Sanjeev Shilpakar and Sanjay Gupta, who were described as "kingpins" of the PMT scam. For PMT 2013, Dr. Sagar had given 317, Shilpakar 92 and Sanjay Gupta 48 names. Mahendra had recorded the details of these candidates in his computer and destroyed the list. While allotting roll numbers to these candidates, the slots immediately before or after them were left blank. These roll numbers were then allotted to fake candidate. The roll numbers were set at their homes and brought to office in Pen drive. After reaching the office, they uploaded the roll numbers to the computers. After that Mahendra, used to telephone the middlemen and provide a confirmation. Dr. Jagdish Sagar Indore-based Jagdish Sagar helped around 140 students get selected to the medical courses illegally, during 2009-12 alone.[34] He arranged impersonators, largely sourced from Uttar Pradesh. He ran the alleged racket since late 1990s, and had amassed a huge amount of wealth, including several real estate properties.[35] He was arrested in 2003 on similar charges, but the police did not keep a watch on him after his release.[36] Dr Sanjeev Shilpakar Bhopal-based Shilpakar was a junior of Jagdish Sagar in medical college, and started his own racket inspired by him. For PMT 2013, Shilpakar had enlisted 92 candidates, out of which 45 candidates had already paid him ₹ 30 million. In turn, Shilpakar had bribed MPPEB officials including Nitin Mahindra, impersonators and brokers who brought candidates to him. He absconded after the arrest of Jagdish Sagar, but was later arrested by the STF.[37] Sudhir Rai, Santosh Gupta, Tarang Sharma This gang was much bigger than (and a competitor to) Sagar's racket, and charged upwards of ₹ 2.5 million per candidate. The gang also facilitated admissions to medical colleges in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Rai-Gupta racket was more organized than Sagar's racket and had branches in Ujjain, Shahdol, Sagar and Ratlam. Rai arranged candidates; Gupta arranged impersonators, most of whom came from Bihar. The gang is believed to have helped over 500 candidates gain admission to medical colleges illegally.[38] MPPEB employees Pankaj Trivedi, MPPEB Examination Controller He was arrested in September 2013 and is currently in a judicial custody. The state anti-corruption police has recovered around 25 million rupees and numerous properties from his possession that are unknown to his sources of income. Evidence of his partnership in Indore based medical college was also found.[39] Even after the Jagdish Sagar's racket was exposed, Trivedi managed to get an order that allowed Sagar's 317 candidates to get admission to medical courses on submission of an affidavit.[14] CK Mishra, Officer, Vyapam CK Mishra has admitted that he was working for Dr. Sagar, Santosh Gupta and Sanjiv Shilpkar since 2009. In 2009, Dr. Sagar had given him application forms of 20 candidates, who were to be allotted roll numbers in such a way that in the exam, their seats were one behind the other. Rs 50,000 per roll number was paid to him. Thus, he received Rs 1 million. In 2010, Dr. Sagar gave forms of 40 students. This time Rs 2 million was paid. In 2012, Dr. Sagar took contract of 60 students, Shilpkar gave roll numbers of 20 boys. They paid Rs 3 million and Rs 1 million respectively.[40] Nitin Mohindra / Nitin Mahendra (Principal System Analyst) and Ajay Sen (Senior System Analyst) Vyapam programmer Yashwant Parnekar and clerk Yuvraj Hingve said in their statements that the computers of Mahindra and Sen were not linked with the main server of Vyapam. These two officers could access the data stored in 25 other computers at Vyapam but the data in their computers could not be accessed by anyone. Taking advantage of this, they allotted roll numbers and examination centers as per their wish.[41] Others Dr. G S Khanuja On September 13, 2014, Special Task Force (STF) arrested the COO of Aurbindo hospital located in Indore. His son secured 12th rank in the medical examination of 2012 through unfair means.[42] Mohit Chaudhary Mohit Chaudhary, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was an MBBS student at MGM Medical College Indore, when he was first named in the Vyapam scam case. He had been named by ome students accused of clearing MP PMT-2013 fraudulently. Earlier, in 2012, he had been arrested by Delhi Police for helping students cheat in the AIIMS post-graduate entrance examination. He charged each candidate ₹ 15-18 lakh for a seat in AIIMS. For cheating during the exam, he provided the candidates a shirt with a Bluetooth chip stitched into it, tiny earphones and SIM cards.[43] Narendra Dev Azad (Jatav) On February 19, 2015, the special investigation team (SIT) arrested him on the charges of acting as a middleman in the admission of Amar Singh Medha in 2009 in MGM College, Indore.[44] Dr. Vinod Bhandari He is the main accused and was arrested on the charges of illegally helping students to get admission through Vyapam officers.[45] He fled to Mauritius when he was named in the scam and returned only after an anticipatory bail was granted by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.[46] Animesh Akash Singh He worked as a broker and got admitted four candidates in PMT.[15] Jitendra Malviya A third year student of MBBS at MGM College of Indore who had got admitted one candidate in PMT 2013 through Dr. Sanjeev Shilpakar.[15] Allegations against Governor Ram Naresh Yadav The STF also found evidence against the state Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. On February 24, 2015, Yadav was charged for criminal conspiracy in rigging the MPPEB forest guard recruitment examination.[47] His son Shailesh was an accused in the contractual teachers' recruitment and later found dead in mysterious circumstances in March, 2015. His former officer-on-special-duty Dhanraj Yadav was arrested by STF in 2013 in connection with the scam. The Governor petitioned the High Court arguing that no criminal proceedings could be initiated against him, as the Constitution of India grants him immunity while he is in office. The High Court agreed and stayed his arrest, but ordered the inivestigations against him to proceed.[48] The SIT chief declared that the investigators will act against Yadav after his retirement in September 2016.[49] Three advocates petitioned the Supreme Court to order removal of Yadav as Governor.[50] A bench comprising Chief Justice of India H. L. Dattu and Justices Arun Kumar Mishra and Amitava Roy has agreed to hear the petition on July 9.[51] Allegations of threats to whistleblowers and activists Anand Rai Indore-based Dr. Anand Rai filed a PIL which led to investigation in the scam. He has reported receiving regular threat calls, and has also alleged that contract killers were hired to kill him. In 2013, he approached the court requesting security cover. He was told to pay ₹ 50,000 per month for police protection, although his monthly salary was only ₹ 38,000. In 2015, he was provided with a security guard.[2] Rai was accused of being a Congress agent by a BJP spokesperson, but he refuted the accusation pointing out that he had been a member of BJP, and was active in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activities during from 2005 to 2013.[52] Ashish Chaturvedi Gwalior-based social activist Ashish Chaturvedi lodged a complaint against 8 people, one of whom was Gulab Singh Kirar's son Shakti Singh; Kirar is a relative of the Chief Minister. Chaturvedi had also petitioned CBI to probe admissions of 5,000 doctors in MBBS and PG courses of 2003-2013 in all state colleges. He suffered three attacks on his life, including an abduction bid. He has alleged that the police refused to provide him adequate protection after he complained of threats to his life. The police reportedly asked him to pay ₹ 50,000 for protection or remain confined in his home.[53] Prashant Pandey A former IT consultant hired with the Special Task Force (STF), Prashant Pandey also claims to be a whistleblower. He was arrested in 2014 for trying to use the team's information to blackmail the Vyapam accused.[54] He later claimed that the investigators were trying to shield the Chief Minister by tampering evidence, and were harassing him for exposing the alleged tampering. An Excel sheet allegedly implicating the Chief Minister, and claimed by Pandey to be an original tamper-free version, was declared as a forgery by the High Court.[55] The Madhya Pradesh police registered an FIR against him for leaking information as part of this Excel sheet.[56] Pandey petitioned to the Delhi High Court, which stayed his arrest.[57] Pandey has claimed that only five percent of the scam had been probed.[58] Allegations against the Chief Minister In 2014, Prashant Pandey (aka "Mr. X"), an IT consultant hired by the STF, was arrested for trying to use the team's information to blackmail the Vyapam accused.[54] Pandey then approached the Indian National Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, and claimed that he was a whistleblower who was being harassed for exposing the role of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the scam. He alleged that the investigating agencies had tampered with the contents of the Excel sheet recovered from hard disk of the scam accused Nitin Mohindra's computer. Mohindra maintained a record of the candidates' names, their roll numbers and the names of those who had recommended them. Hundreds of people were arrested based on the information in this sheet. Pandey claimed that the investigators had modified the original version of the sheet by removing the names of senior BJP leaders, including Chouhan, from the sheet.[55] Digvijaya Singh then submitted a 15-page affidavit before the SIT, alleging that the investigators were shielding the Chief Minister. SIT took cognisance of Singh's complaint, and sent both versions of the Excel sheet for forensic analysis. The forensic laborary reported that the Excel sheet available with STF was genuine, while Pandey's version was forged.[55][59] Accordingly, Singh's submission was rejected as a forgery by Justice Khanwilkar in the MP High Court.[60] Pandey stood by his version, and stated that it had been authenticated by Truth Labs, a private forensic lab.[55] He approached the Delhi High Court for protection as a whistleblower, claiming persecution by the MP Police. He claimed that he first sent the documents to the BJP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and the Prime Minister's Office; he approached Congress leaders only when he did not receive any response.[61] Chouhan hit back at his critics, saying that his government should be credited for the exposing the scam. He stated that only 228 out of 350,000 appointments made during his tenure had been affected by the recruitment scam, and unlike previous governments, he had conducted a thorough probe. Replying to Congress' allegations that his wife had got jobs for 17 of her relatives from Gondia, he pointed out that not a single candidate from Gondia had got the job in the question.[62] Deaths A number of people connected to the scam and its investigation, died during the course of investigation. The opposition parties and activists alleged that several of these deaths happened under suspicious circumstances. In 2015, the Special Task Force (STF) submitted a list to High Court, naming 23 people who are believed to have died "unnatural deaths". According to the STF, most of these deaths took place before it took over the investigation in July 2013. Some media reports claimed that 40+ people associated with the scam had died under mysterious cirumstances.[63] The State Government dismissed the allegations, arguing that Vyapam conducts very large-scale examinations and thousands of people are admitted or recruited through these exams every year. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan insisted that death of every person linked with Vyapam exams should not be linked to the Vyapam scam.[64] The state's Home Minister Babulal Gaur claimed that the deaths were "natural".[65] According to whistleblower Anand Rai, 10 of these deaths are suspicious, while the rest might be coincidences. The deaths considered as suspicious by him include the deaths of Akshay Singh, Namarata Damor, Narendra Tomar, D K Sakkale, Arun Sharma, Rajendra Arya and four middlemen who died in road accidents.[66] According to the High-Court Special Investigation Team (SIT), 32 people in 25-30 age-group identified as 'racketeers' during the investigation, died in suspicious circumstances since the investigation started in 2012. The SIT officials raised concerns that the arrested people were naming those who were already dead, in order to mislead the probe.[67] The following is a list of "unnatural deaths" mentioned in the STF and SIT records, plus other deaths alleged to be "suspicious" by the opposition parties and the media.
Akkumm_Bakkumm Posted July 8, 2015 Report Posted July 8, 2015 Ayya baboi adi antha chadavala...? Chadivina vallu leda e scam gurinchi telisina vallu, could you please brief me....!!
alpachinao Posted July 8, 2015 Report Posted July 8, 2015 Ayya baboi adi antha chadavala...? Chadivina vallu leda e scam gurinchi telisina vallu, could you please brief me....!! +1234567890
Hitman Posted July 8, 2015 Report Posted July 8, 2015 half chadivanu... scam in exam board..who the board is responsible to conduct all high level competitive tests in MP. happening since 1996.. board members anta pedda group ayyi diffrent schemes plan chesi... underserved candidates ki entrance test lo manchi marks veyyadam...
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