Vyapam scam: CBI chargesheet against 490
NEWDELHI: Federal investigators virtually cleared on Tuesday Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and charged 490 people in the multi-crore Vyapam examination scandal that rocked the BJP-ruled state four years ago and affected thousands of students.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a court that there was no mention of word ‘CM’ in the hard drives recovered — as alleged by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and whistle blower Prashant Pandey.
The agency presented its findings on the basis of forensic analysis of the drives.
“We have informed the special court in Bhopal on Tuesday that forensic experts have held that there is no tampering with the three computer hard disk drives (HDDs) that were recovered in the case,” CBI spokesman Abhishek Dayal said.
The case pertains to the CBI’s probe into the 2013 pre-medical test conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (Vyavsayic Pariksha Mandal or Vyapam in Hindi).
Investigators said Vyapam officials colluded with racketeers to manipulate roll numbers of candidates and ‘solvers’ – the term used for paid candidates who helped others crack the exams. Candidates were seated behind their solvers, enabling the beneficiaries to copy the answers, the agency said.
Most of the solver candidates were either medical college students or bright medical aspirants undergoing coaching in MP, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
In the chargesheet, the CBI has named three Vyapam officials, three other racketeers, 17 middlemen, 297 solver and beneficiary candidates and 170 guardians of beneficiary candidates.
However, the CBI did not mention any possible action against Prashant Pandey.
“As of now, we have left it to the discretion of the court,” said a CBI official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
When approached for his reaction, Pandey said he had not seen the chargesheet filed by the CBI, “therefore I am not a position to comment on it in detail”.
The CBI will file another chargesheet in connection with its probe into the conduct of the premedical test in 2012.