Vyapam case: CBI files charge sheet against 592 accused including Chairmen of 4 private medical colleges

Chairmen of four private medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh and two officers of medical education department are among the 592 accused named in a charge sheet filed by the CBI in a Vyapam-related case, officials said today.

Those listed in the charge sheet included J N Choksey, chairman of L N Medical College; S N Vijaywargiya of People's Medical College; Ajay Goenka of Chirayu Medical College (all in Bhopal) and Suresh Singh Bhadoriya of Index Medical College, Indore, they said. While three promoters did not comment when contacted by PTI, Bhadoriya claimed neither his nor his college's name was mentioned in the CBI charge sheet. All four of them are understood to have filed application for anticipatory bail, the CBI officials said.

The charge sheet was filed in a special CBI court in Bhopal in the case of Pre-Medical Test (PMT) conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or Vyapam in 2012. The test was for selecting candidates to various medical colleges of the state. Explaining the modus operandi, the CBI officials said middlemen followed an engine-bogey system for pairing of candidates to take examination in alleged connivance with certain Vyapam officials.

In this, a bright candidate (who had already taken coaching to prepare for the test and is well versed with the examination pattern) would be alloted a roll number just ahead of a not-so-bright aspirant so that the latter could cheat from him, they said. The bright candidate would act as engine and the other as the bogey, the official said. The middlemen were charging anything between Rs 15 and 20 lakh for this pairing, the CBI officials said.
Giving further details of the case, they said on the basis of successful selection, the bright students would then take admission only in the four private medical colleges named in the charge sheet, despite they being in the merit list and hence eligible for admission in government institutions.

These successful candidates, in connivance with middlemen and office bearers of private medical colleges, would later withdraw their admission, the officials said. Instead of reporting these vacancies to state government department concerned, the college authorities would fill these seats through management quota charging a hefty amount from a minimum of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore, they said. The students who took admission through the management quotas were not the ones who sat in the examination, the officials said.

Among those named in the charge sheet, 334 are 'engine- bogey' candidates, 155 are guardians of these candidates, 46 invigilators of the examination, 26 officials of four private medical colleges, 22 middlemen and two officers of department of medical education, Madhya Pradesh, they said. The state government officials named in the charge sheet are S C Tiwari, the then director, and N M Srivastava, the then joint director in the medical education department, they said.

Of the total people named in the charge sheet, 245 have been made accused for the first time. Others have been named in different charge sheet filed earlier by the CBI. The probe agency is looking into the various cases of massive irregularities in various examination conducted by the Vyapam to select candidates for medical colleges and also for state government jobs.