Indore: In the latest update, a court on Thursday sentenced five people to five years' rigorous imprisonment after finding them guilty of a fraud at the 2013 Pre Medical Test conducted by the Madhya Pradesh government's Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or 'Vyapam'.
The convict included a `solver’ hailing from Bihar who impersonated candidates in order to facilitate a good score, reports PTI.
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Judge Sanjay Kumar Gupta convicted Ravindra Kumar, Vikrant Kumar, Ramchitra Jatav, Rakesh Khanna and Brajesh under relevant Indian Penal Code sections and the Madhya Pradesh Examination Recognition Act, said special CBI prosecutor Ranjan Sharma.
The prosecution examined 52 witnesses, he said.
Vikrant Kumar, a resident of Nalanda district in Bihar, wrote the PMT for Ravindra Kumar, a resident of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, he said, adding that the other three acted as middlemen or touts.
Ravindra Kumar subsequently got admission to the MBBS course at Government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore.
After the wider Vyapam scam, which included several such exam manipulation rackets, came to light, Ravindra got frightened and confessed to the college dean about having cleared the PMT through fraudulent means, Sharma said.
The dean asked him to give his statement in writing but he did not and later became untraceable, he said.
As much as Rs 7.5 lakh had exchanged hands in the case, the prosecutor said.
The scam in Vyapam or Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board broke out in 2013, wherein candidates had bribed officials and rigged exams by deploying imposters to write their answersheets. The scam began in 1995 involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen. The CBI had taken over investigation following the Supreme Court order in 2015.
Since the Central Bureau initiated its investigation, several students, doctors and officials have been arrested in this connection. Similarly, nine former officials of private medical colleges had also been accused of cheating, forgery among other offences in the pre-medical test PMT-2013 for admissions to MBBS course.
They were apprehending their arrest in a criminal case registered at the police station CBI, Bhopal for offences under section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the IPC, Madhya Pradesh Recognised Examinations Act, 1937, IT Act, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Arms Act.
Also Read:Vyapam scam: CBI court sentences candidate to 5 years imprisonment for taking MBBS admission fraudulently