By Express News Service
BHOPAL: In all, 229 government quota seats in four private medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh were up for sale to ineligible candidates in 2012 for sums ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore, thanks to a nexus between private medical colleges, government officials and middlemen.
The CBI on Thursday filed a charge sheet against 592 accused, including the chairmen of four private medical colleges, in the MP Pre Medical Test 2012 examination scam case, one of the key cases of the multi-layered Vyapam scam.
The 592 accused named in the charge sheet filed in a special CBI court in Bhopal include 334 candidates, 155 parents and guardians, 46 invigilators at examination centres in Bhopal and Indore, two officials of the department of medical education, 22 middlemen and racketeers, and 26 officials of four private medical colleges.
Of the accused, 347 have been charge-sheeted for the second time. They were earlier charge-sheeted by MP police STF before CBI took up the probe in 2015.
The 245 accused charge-sheeted for the first time include Ajay Goenka, S N Vijayvargiya, JN Chowkse and S S Bhadauria, who head the four private medical colleges which auctioned their seats for heavy sums to ineligible candidates.
As per the charge sheet, of the 286 state government quota seats (which formed 42.5 per cent of the total seats) in four private medical colleges in Bhopal and Indore, 229 seats were up for sale.
The four medical colleges are the Peoples Medical College, Chirayu Medical College, and L N Medical College in Bhopal, and Index Medical College in Indore.
The charge sheet says the middlemen arranged solvers, who were students from medical colleges in UP and Bihar or those preparing for medical entrance examinations at private coaching centres. These solvers were made to appear as candidates in the PMT 2012 entrance test.
Instead of opting for government medical colleges in the state, the solvers opted for only the four private medical colleges in Bhopal and Indore.
The accused, in collusion with officials of Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (MP Professional Examination Board), ensured that the solvers were seated close to beneficiary candidates, whose guardians had paid the racketeers.
In a nutshell
Of the 286 state government quota seats in four private medical colleges in Bhopal and Indore, 229 vacant seats were up for sale
The beneficiary candidates got seats in medical colleges by copying from solvers, who were seated next to them
