7 Vyapam accused summoned under wrong section by CBI, get bail

BHOPAL: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that submitted charge sheet against 490 persons in the alleged irregularities in the PMT 2013 examination conducted by Vyapam, suffered a major embarrassment on Tuesday. The court granted bail to all the seven accused who were arrested as the agency had summoned them under a wrong section of the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC).

Advocate Gopesh Shikkewal told HT that the CBI had demanded that the accused be sent to jail, but the court agreed with the defense since all of them were summoned under a wrong CRPC section and deserved bail.

The CBI had summoned 88 persons out of the 490 accused under Section 160 of CRPC, which empowers an investigating officer to summon people for recording statement at the office. However, when the accused reached the CBI office in Bhopal, they were told to come to the court.

“In the court, the accused were told that a supplementary charge sheet was being filed. This meant that the accused would have been arrested and it was not certain whether bail would be granted or not. When the accused realised this, many of them ran away from the court premises,” said advocate Dinesh Tiwari who is representing 300 persons in the Vyapam case.

The CBI then demanded that all those who fled should be declared as absconders under Section 224 of IPC, but the court refused when the defense argued that they were not summoned under Section 170 of CRPC. The court gave 15 days time to the other accused to file for their bail.

The CBI acted in the most unprofessional manner. We thought we were called for recording statement, but at 4.30 pm, they told us that we were going to be arrested