INDORE: A special CBI court on Saturday sentenced three men to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for five years for cheating a doctor of Rs 13 lakh under the pretext of helping his son clear the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) in 2012 conducted by the MP Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or Vyapam.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 8,000 on each of them.
CBI court judge Sanjay Kumar Gupta found Sourav Kumar Singh, who hails from Bihar, Umesh Srivastava, a resident of Chhattisgarh, and Praveen Singh of Uttar Pradesh- all members of an inter-state gang- guilty under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of documents) and other counts of the Indian Penal Code, special public prosecutor Ranjan Sharma said.
He said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) produced 41 witnesses during the trial against the trio.
An absconding accused, Setu Raj of Bihar, has also been convicted and an arrest warrant issued against him, Sharma said.
The Supreme Court in 2015 had directed the CBI to probe the massive scam in tests and recruitment conducted by Vyapam while hearing a clutch of petitions.
This scam involved rigging professional and recruitment tests.
The Vyapam was later renamed the MP Professional Examination Board.