Vyapam Scam.pdf

Vyapam Scam From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Vyapam scam  scam  was a massive admission and recruitment scam scam involving  involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in the state of Madhya Pradesh in Pradesh in India. Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court served notices to Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) and Medical Council of India (MCI) following (MCI)  following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed (PIL)  filed by parents of some students after reports that more than 300 ineligible candidates managed to get into the merit list. Complaints of irregularities and crooked deals in pre-medical test (PMT) were surfacing since 2009 but in the year 2013, a major scam was unearthed involving several officials and politicians. The kingpin of the impersonation racket Dr. Jagdish Sagar was arrested and subsequently several other influential people were arrested including exEducation Minister Laxmikant Sharma, MPPEB’s exam controller Pankaj Trivedi, MPPEB’s system analysts Nitin Mahendra and Ajay Sen and state PMT’s examination in-charge C. K. Mishra. The credit to expose the scam goes to Indore-based medical practitioner Dr. Anand Rai. As per some reports, it is one of the biggest scams to rock the state of Madhya Pradesh. Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh police under the supervision of High Court is conducting the investigations. Enforcement Directorateunder Directorateunder Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in (PMLA)  in March 2014, booked MPPEB’s exam controller Pankaj Trivedi along with 25 other accused including former Madhya Pradesh higher education minister Laxmikant Sharma and his former officer on special duty O.P. Shukla. 720 parents and students were booked and more than 129 politicians, officials and middlemen were arrested.

The scam Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), Board  (MPPEB), also known by its Hindi Hindi name  name Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal   (Vyapam) is a self-financed and an 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. 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 kickbacks.. The following tricks were used by those involved in the scam: 1. Impersonation – The admit card of of the candidate was used to execute the trick. All the information 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. 2. Engine and Bogie System System – A person was was strategically seated between two two other candidates by the Board officials. The person let them copy from his sheet and the examiners were bribed to fix it. 3. 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 loop holes 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 record was 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 Initial investigation In 2009, complaints of irregularities in the pre-medical test (PMT) surfaced. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhanset Chouhan set up a committee to look into these irregularities in 2009; the committee submitted its report in 2011. In July 2011, MPPEB monitored 145 suspects during the Pre-Medical Test (PMT). Most of the suspects did

who had accepted    4 lakh to appear in place of Ashish Yadav, in Indore. 15 exam toppers from the previous year appeared for the exam. Suspecting that these people were called in to impersonate others, MPPEB asked them to explain their reasons for re-taking the exams. Later, 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. In November 2011, a government probe committee headed by the State Joint Director of Medical Education submitted a report stating that 100+ students had passed PMT using impersonation. 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 spent some years taking the course. 2013 MP-PMT exam In 2013, Dr. Anand Rai, an Indore based ophthalmologist and civil rights activist alleged a massive PreMedical Test (PMT) scam. He claimed that thousands of candidates secured admission to medical colleges in the state through unfair means like impersonation and bribery. According to Dr. Rai, this scam dated back to 2004 and the first case was reported in Khandwa, a city near Indore. On the basis of Rai's report, the state government started investigating the scam, and transferred the case to a Special Task Force (STF). On July 6 and 7, Indore crime branch arrested 20 candidates from various city hotels of whom 17 belonged to Uttar Pradesh while three were from Madhya Pradesh. The candidates had come to impersonate MPPMT candidates. A list containing names of 317 students was confiscated from Dr. Jagdish Sagar after his arrest from a hotel in Mumbai by Indore crime branch on July 12, nine days ahead of PMT counselling. MPPEB’s exam controller Pankaj Trivedi, whose involvement was not known until then, shot a letter to Indore IG Vipin Maheshwari seeking information about on-going investigations and list of students recovered from Dr. Sagar. IG forwarded this letter to Indore SP (west) Anil Singh Kushwaha for necessary action. Kushwaha in reply wrote a letter to Trivedi on July 19 s tating a case under sections 419, 420, 467, 468 had been registered at Rajendra Nagar police station in connection with PMT 2013 exam and it was difficult to clear the suspects without investigation. Trivedi's office received the letter, next day on July 20. Investigators failed to find out how and why Trivedi's letter was entertained by the Indore crime branch. Police also supplied the list of 317 suspect candidates to Trivedi, though it was not r equired. On the same day, July 20, Trivedi sent a letter to Principal Secretary (PS), Medical education department, Government of MP and deans of all medical colleges about 317 'suspicious' students making it to premedical test merit list and stating that during counselling scheduled for July 21 they could be admitted after seeking an undertaking in an affidavit from them that their admissions would be considered 'cancelled' if they are found guilty of using unfair means in the police investigations. "Trivedi's letter to the PS, Directorate of Medical education and state government for allowing these students, and its compliance shows that more authorities were hand in glove with him in perpetuating the scam," said Abhay Chopra, another petitioner, who demanded a CBI inquiry in the case. Trivedi made several other communications about exams before being arrested by STF on September 28 - for his alleged role in the pre-medical test (PMT) scam on the basis of Dr Jagdish Sagar's interrogation. At a high level meeting held in Bhopal in July 2013, senior bureaucrats raised serious questions on the police investigation in Vyapam scam and expressed surprise over the fact that Dr. Sagar could operate so smoothly. Moreover, they were shocked to know that no tab was kept on him as he was arrested in 2003 in similar case. In the same meeting, government admitted major lapses in its working that helped the pre-medical test scam thrive. In December 2013, Special Task Force investigating the PMT scam produced a supplementary chargesheet  against 34 accused, running into 23,000 pages 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 Earlier, STF had chargesheeted 28 people, including Sagar, in the case on October 5. On April 29, 2014, 27 students of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) medical college  were expelled, on the directives of the Medical Education Department, for having allegedly used fraudulent means to clear PMT2012. These 27 students were part of 286 candidates who cleared PMT-2012 through fraudulent means and were identified by STF. On June 19, 2014, Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh police issued a statement that it has arrested over 100 medical students for their involvement in the PMT scam and this number could go up as arrests are being everyday. All these students allegedly cleared the medical entrance test by fraudulent means.

The arrests were carried out after Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the STF to submit a status report in the matter on June 30. During a previous hearing, the High Court had taken a strong view and asked police why high and mighty and absconding accused persons in connection with the scam were not yet arrested by the STF. Following this, STF had also arrested former state technical education minister and BJP leader Laxmikant Sharma on June 15 for his alleged involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam. The contractual teachers examination too was conducted by the MPPEB (Vyapam). Other recruitments rigged In November 2013, the Special Task Force (STF) of Madhya Pradesh police made a shocking revelation that Vyapam officials rigged five more 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. Different FIRs against 153 people including mining baron Sudhir Sharma were filed. Sharma, a close confidante of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, was earlier interrogated by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with mining scam. SBI and IBPS recruitment In September 2014, disclosure of rigging bank exams was made by Special Task Force on the basis of interrogation of Dr. Jagdish Sagar and Mohit Chaudhary. The accused in collusion with a Bihar module, arranged proxy candidates for candidates from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who appeared for SBI Probationary Officer's examination from Madhya Pradesh. Numerous candidates who fraudulently cleared the written examination of bank recruitment, ultimately failed to clear the interview.

Key arrests By June 2015, more than 2,000 people had been arrested in connection with the scam. Laxmikant Sharma, ex-Education Minister (M.P) After being quizzed twice, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader was arrested after his alleged involvement in contractual teachers recruitment scam. The exam was conducted by MPPEB and Sharma was its Minister in-charge in his capacity as the then Technical Education Minister in the last BJP government in the state. He later resigned from BJP after he was sent to four days police remand. Later, three FIRs were filed against him in separate cases. Dr. Vinod Bhandari He is the main accused and was arrested on the charges of illegally helping students to get admission through Vyapam officers. 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. 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. Pankaj Trivedi, Examination Controller Vyapam 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. Sudhir Sharma He is the mining baron of Madhya Pradesh and an accused in the sub-inspector and constable recruitment scam. His rise from the a primary school teacher to a billionaire is surrounded by mysteries. The investigative team declared him as an absconder and declared a reward of Rs. 5000 for information about his whereabouts. After a long hide and seek, h e finally surrendered on July 25, 2014. 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

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. Dr. Jagdish Sagar (Middleman) Dr. Sagar used to handover handwritten notes to Vyapam officials, telling them which roll number to allot to which student. For 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 Dr. Sagar and tell him, “The work has been done. You can check on the website”. Animesh Akash Singh He worked as a broker and got admitted four candidates in PMT. 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. 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, 201 4. 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 were in a shock to found cash,  jewellery, property worth Rs. 600-700 million. Vandana Dwivedi On September 11, 2014, Special Task Force (STF) arrested the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader for her role in the scam. She had given C. K. Mishra a list of five candidates for recruitment in contractual teachers (grade II) appointment out of which two were selected. 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. Mohit Chaudhary He was arrested along with his gang for helping the students appearing in pre-medical test cheat with the help of bluetooth. He was earlier arrested in 2012 for rigging other competitive exams but was released on bail. He himself fraudulently cracked the post-graduate medical entrance examination conducted by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). 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.

Whistleblowers Indore based Dr. Anand Rai and Gwalior based social activist Ashish Chaturvedi are the two main whistle blowers of this scam. While Dr. Anand Rai blew the lid over this scam, Ashish Chaturvedi blew the whistle over involvement of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s relatives in the scam. Despite a Whistle Blower’s Protection law in force, both of them face threat to their life and were denied police protection. Ashish Chaturvedi has already suffered three attacks on his li fe including an abduction bid. Chaturvedi had also petitioned CBI to probe admissions of 5,000 doctors in MBBS and PG courses of 2003-2013 in all

Prashant Pandey, a former IT consultant hired with the Special Task Force (STF), also claims to be a whistleblower. He was arrested in 2014 for trying to use the team's information to blackmail the Vyapam accused. 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. The Madhya Pradesh police registered an FIR against him for leaking information as part of this Excel sheet. He also claimed that only five percent of the scam had been probed. Circumstantial Statistics This scam must be understood as part of the wider nexus of poor healthcare, corruption and central licensing powers. Madhya Pradesh has a doctor population ratio of 1:18650 ( roughly 1:300 in Europe). Newly qualified post graduates earn approximately 20 times the Per capita income of Madhya Pradesh and hence privileged parents are willing to plough money in education. Post graduation costs up to 400 lakh rupees ($650,000) in a state recognised Private College while it is comparatively much cheaper at 75 lakhs, to 'purchase' a seat in a government run school, through the scam network. India is the only country where sale of medical seats by private medical colleges is part of official policy. It means the ability to pay counts more than merit. The Medical Council of India, which regulated the sold medical seats, itself accused of being systemically corrupt, has both slashed medical seats and made suitability tests for students who study abroad extremely difficult, thus increasing the price of Private medical education, while education remains comparatively free in the relatively few state run colleges once the bribes have been paid. Response to scam Congress had demanded a CBI probe into the scam and expressed concern over impartial investigation 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. On the other hand, the Chief Minister had termed it as “mudslinging” by the opposition due to the defeat in Lok Sabha election 2014. The Chief Minister also vowed to take legal action against Congress leaders who leveled serious allegations on his wife but later dropp ed the plan on the advice of bureaucrats close to him as it may have led to another embarrassment for the government. On November 5, 2014, Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected Digvijay Singh's petition for CBI probe and ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to act as a watchdog for the court. The court also directed the special task force (STF) to keep a close watch on news related to the scam in electronic and print media and make relevant news a part of the investigation. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has appointed Justice Chandresh Bhushan, Retd. Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court as the Chairman of the SIT along with two other members to prob e the scam. On February 18, 2015, the special investigation team sought permission from Madhya Pradesh High court to probe state Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, which was subsequently granted. FIR was registered against Governor's son Shailesh Yadav as well. Congres s raised this issue in Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha during its budget session. For the first time in the history of Indian politics, the assembly session ended only in 6 days without discussion on the budget.

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. Pandey then approached the Indian National Congress leaderDigvijaya 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 BJ P leaders, including Chouhan, from the sheet. 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. Accordingly, Singh's submission was rejected as a forgery by Justice Khanwilkar in the MP High Court. Pandey stood by his version, and stated that it had been authenticated by Truth Labs, a private forensic lab. 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 l eaders only when he did not receive any r esponse. 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 qu estion.

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 investigati on in July 2013. Some media reports cl aimed that 40+ people associated with the scam had died under mysterious cirumstances. The state's Home Minister Babulal Gaur dismissed the allegations, and claimed that the deaths were natural. According to the High-Court Special Investigation Team (SIT), 32 of the 'racketeers' in 25-30 age-group, 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. Date of death

Name

Role

Circumstances of death

21 November 2009

Vikas Singh Thakur

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Barwani due to illness and adverse drug reaction

12 June 2010

Shyamvir Yadav

Middleman in PMT scam from Gwalior

Died in Raisen in a road mishap

14 June 2010

Anshul Sachan

Middleman in PMT scam from Hoshangabad

Died in Raisen in a road mishap

14 June 2010

Anuj Uikey

Middleman in PMT scam from Mandla

Died in Raisen in a road mishap

2010

Gyan Singh

Middleman in PMT scam from Bhind

Died in Gwalior; Alcohol-related illness

2010

Deepak Verma

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Indore in a road mishap

A native of Meghnaghar in Jhabua, 25-year old Namrata was a first year student of MGM Medical College, Indore. Her death was initially ruled as a suicide in 2012. However, in 2014, her name appeared in the list of students who had cleared PMT-2010 using unfair means. Her friend Vishal Verma's name also appeared in the list of candidates who had been impersonated by other students in PMT-2009. Both the students had successfully applied for a transfer from G R Medical

Namrata went missing on 7 January, soon after her results were declared. Unable to reach her on mobile phone, her brother Omprakash arrived in Indore to inquire her. He lodged a missing person complaint on 12 January. On the same day Namrata went missing, the police had found a mutilated dead body close to the railway tracks near Maksi in Ujjain district. A ticket reserved for 7 January in Indore-Bilaspur Express was also found with the body, but there was no other identification. The police had buried the body after performing an autopsy, and put up its photograph at Ujjain

January 2012

Namrata Damor

Medical College in Indore. According to her father Mehtab Singh Damor, Vishal had helped her get this transfer. According to Dr Anand Rai, a whistleblower who exposed the PMT irregularities, she could have been sexually exploited by the masterminds of the scam. Namrata's family claimed that they had an argument with the scam's kingpin Jagdish Sagar and his gang a few days before her disappearance. They had met Jagdish Sagar through Gangaram Pipliya, who was also chargesheeted in the scam. According to them, Vishal was a conduit of Jagdish Sagar.

Omprakash identified the body as that of her sister based on the photograph. In autopsy, semen was found on her body. Four men were subjected to DNA test to match semen samples collected from her clothes. One of these was Vishal Verma, who had called her several times on her mobile minutes before she died. Vishal's sample allegedly matched with the sample collected from Namrata's clothes, but he was let off after an investigation. The police suspected that she had committed suicide by jumping off the train, because her father had scolded her over her friendship with a boy he disapproved of. This was in January 2012, when the MPPEB scam had not been exposed fully. However, in 2014, both Namrata and Vishal's names appeared in the list of student suspects in the scam, leading to suspicions of foul play. Namrata's family claimed that she had been murdered and her dead body was dumped on the railway tracks.

25 October 2012

Aditya Chaudhary (alias Ravi Pippal)

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Sagar; Suicide

7 November 2012

Anant Ram Tagore

Got son admitted through PMT scam

Died in Morena; Cancer

28 November 2012

Arvind Shakya

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Gwalior in a road mishap

21 April 2013

Rinku alias Pramod Sharma

Middleman in Police Constable Scam

Died in Jhansi; Suicide by hanging

12 May 2013

Kuldeep Marawi

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Mandla in a road mishap

17 May 2013

Premlata Pandey

Accused in Contract Teachers' scam; a student and a resident of Nehrunagar, Bhopal

Died in Rewa; Liver Cancer

10 August 2013

Ashutosh Tiwari

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Tikamgarh; Alcoholrelated Illness

15 September 2013

Tarun Machhar

Student Accused in PMT scam

Died in Ratlam in a road mishap

9 October 2013

Anand Singh Yadav

Middleman in PMT scam, from Fatehpur

Died in Raisen in a road mishap

26 December 2013

Devendra Nagar

Middleman in Police Constable Recruitment scam

Died in Bhind in a road mishap

21 January 2014

Bunty Sikarwar

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Gwalior; Suicide

January 2015

Lalit Golaria

fraud

Morena He found hanging at his home in Gwalior a few days after an FIR was registered against him. The Gwalior police claimed that he committed suicide due to a failed love affair. However, his family members stated that he was being "mentally tortured" by scamsters to keep quiet. His mother also committed suicide by consuming acid a week later.

15 January 2015

Ramendra Singh Bhadoria

A 30-year old medical student of the Gajra Raja Medical College, Bhadoria was booked in the scam in January 2015. He was accused of using unfair means to clear PMT 2009, using an unknown impersonator. A college committee had recommend ed his termination.

1 February 2014

Deepak Jain

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Gwalior in a road mishap

14 February 2014

Dinesh Jatav

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Morena in a road mishap

20 April 2014

Vikas Pandey

Middleman in PMT scam

Died in Allahabad; Brain haemorrhage

15 June 2014

Ravindra Pratap Singh

Student accused in PMT scam

Died in Singrauli; Suspected suicide by poisoning

4 July 2014

Dr. D.K. Sakalley

He was the dean of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur. Before his death, he had gone on a 30-day medical leave, to avoid pressure from students who had been sacked in connection with the scam.

He is believed to have immolated himself in a garden behind his house. He had been suffering from depression. A suicide note was repoted to have been recovered, but hte police didn't confirm it to be a case of suicide on the basis that the dean had died under suspicious conditions.

13 July 2014

Narendra Rajput

Middleman in PMT scam from Mahoba

Died in Jhansi; Illness

Amit Sagar

A veterinary student in Mhow, Amit Sagar was named by the prime accused Indrajeet Bhushan in the case.

After Bhushan implicated Sagar in the scam, the police tried to contact him. However, they found that he was already dead: his body was found in a pond in Sheopur district.

Shailesh Yadav

50-year old Shailesh was the son of MP's Governor and Congress leader Ram Naresh Yadav. According to one Veerpal Yadav, he allegedly fixed the recruitment of 10 candidates as Grade III teachers. Veerpal told the STF that he handed over a list of 10 candidates and Rs 3 lakh to his friend Vijay Pal, who forwarded them to Shailesh Yadav at Raj Bhavan.

50-year old Yadav was found dead at Governor's official residence in Lucknow. According to his family, he was a diabetes patient and was under stress after being named in the scam; the cause of his death appeared to be brain haemorrhage. The family didn't suspect any foul play in the death, and called it a natural death. The autopsy was inconclusive and could not ascertain the cause of his death.

A pharmacist posted at Shajapur District Jail, Vijay Singh was arrested for his alleged role in three cases related to the scam. He

Around mid-April, Vijay Singh visited Kanker to meet his wife Reena, who worked in the school education department there. According to his brother

February 2015

25 March 2015

28 April 2015

Vijay Singh Patel

cases, and released on bail in February 2015. Subsequently, he was summoned by STF in a fourth case related to police constable recruitment examination. Based on Vijay Singh's statement, STF had arrested the brother-in-law of minister Laxmikant Sharma'sOSD O P Shukla

28 June 2015

Narendra Singh Tomar

29-year-old Tomar was posted as an Assistant Veterinary Officer at Raisen before being arrested. He was accused of arranging imposters to replace the genuine candidates.

28 June 2015

Rajendra Arya

40-year old Arya was out on bail in the case

Akshay Singh

A journalist with Aaj Tak, 38-year old Akshay Singh was covering the Vyapam scam.

4 July 2015

from Raipur (nearest railway station) to Bhopal on 16 April. He had called his laywer at Raipur station on that day. He again called the lawyer on 17 April, informing that he would meet him in two hours. According to Abhay, this indicates that Vijay was already in Bhopal on 17 April. He went missing a few hours before he was scheduled to appear before the STF at the Bhopal special court. His mobile phone was switched off, and his family members had intimated his disappearance to STF. His body was found on 28 April in Kanker, in a lodge run by a BJP MLA. The lodge employees told the police that Singh had checked in on April 24, and the again on April 27. He had asked them to wake him up on the morning of April 28, so that he could catch a train to Bhopal. When he did not open his door, the lodge staff informed the police. The police found his dead body, and suspected suicide as the door was bolted from inside and the postmortem report mentioned that poison was found in his body. However, Singh's family members suspected that he had been killed as part of a larger conspiracy. They pointed out that no suicide note or poison were found in the room, and claimed that the lodge had an open window from which a killer could have escaped. In Indore jail, he complained of chest pain around 11:15 pm. He was taken to Maharaja Yashwant Rao Hospital, where he was declared brought dead. He is said to have died of a heart attack, but his family members alleged foul play. According to his younger brother, he spoke to his sister around 4 pm and did not complain of any discomfort. Died at a hospital in Gwalior due to liver infection. Akshay Singh suffered a heart attack while interviewing Mehtab Singh, father of Namrata Damor, in her native

According to Mehtab, Singh came to his house at 1 pm, and had a glass of water and a cup of tea. After half an hour, he began coughing and foaming in the mouth. He was first taken to the Meghnagar community health centre, and then to a private hospital, where he died. The autopsy suggested that it was a natural death, but the Congress party suspected foul play in his death and demanded an investigation.

5 July 2015

Other 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Arun Kumar

Arun Kumar had replaced Dr. D.K. Sakalley as the dean of the NS Medical College (Jabalpur), after the latter's death. He was assisting the STF by providing documents on fake medical entrance examinees.

accused declared dead in SIT's report include the following: Anand Singh (Barwani) Anuj Pandey Brijesh Rajput (Barwani) Gyan Singh (Sagar) Manish Kumar Samadhia (Jhansi) Pashupati Nath / Lalit Kumar Pashupatinath Jaiswal Vikram Singh

Two months after taking over as the dean, he was found dead at a Delhi hotel the morning after he arrived there. He was supposed to go to Agartala, as part of an inspection team of Delhi-based Medical Council of India.