The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Bhopal on Wednesday presented a supplementary charge sheet in the 2012 Pre Medical Test exam naming 13 new accused in the scandal.
The charge sheet filed in the court of special judge Neetiraj Singh Sisodia has 73 accused. The 13 new accused named by the CBI in the charge sheet include –four parents, three imposters, three beneficiaries and middlemen.
Among others, the charge sheet names then Vyapam (now Professional Examination Board) director Pankaj Trivedi, then senior system analyst Nitin Mohindra, then Deputy System Analyst Ajay Sen and then programmer CK Mishra.
CBI Inspectors Gurjendar Singh and Kamlesh Tiwari in the probe found that the scandal which tampered with the careers of hundreds of students had a key role of four medical colleges special public prosecutor of the CBI, Satish Dinkar said.
According to estimates, large scale financial transactions took place in connection to 2012 PMT scam which in turn affected thousands of students.
Out of the 13 accused named in the supplementary charge sheet of the CBI six were to present themselves before the court on Wednesday and Seven on Thursday. However, none of the six accused appeared before the court on Wednesday.
Earlier in 2017, the CBI had presented a charge sheet against 592 persons.
Those named in the CBI chargesheet filed in 2017 include four Vyapam officials; 26 officials, including chairmen, of four medical colleges, based at Bhopal and Indore, 22 middlemen, 46 invigilators of examination centres, 155 guardians of beneficiary candidates, three racketeers, 334 paper solvers and beneficiary candidates and two former officers of the states’ Medical Education Department.
The much-hyped scam in Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) or Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board broke out in 2013, wherein candidates bribed officials and rigged exams by deploying imposters to write their answer sheets. It’s said that the scam began as early as 1995 involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen.
After Special Task Force probed into the massive scam for a while, the CBI took over the investigation following the Supreme Court order on July 9, 2015. One of the key players named in the scam, former minister Laxmikant Sharma had died recently of Covid-19.
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