#Vyapam scam: CBI files chargesheet against 490 accused; clean-chit to CM Shivraj Singh

Bhopal, November 1: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given a clean chit to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Vyapam scam. The CBI filed a chargesheet against 490 persons accused in Vyapam scam case on Tuesday.

"We conducted investigation on allegations by Digvijay Singh and another person on tampering with the hard disk drive seized from a computer of the then Principal System Analyst of Vyapam on 18 July, 2013. Based on CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) reports and other evidence gathered, the CBI has concluded that there is no tampering in the said drive," the CBI charge sheet said.

CBI investigators said the organised rackets employed students from across the country to allegedly impersonate medical students and appear in recruitment exams since 2008. Middlemen manipulated seating arrangements and forged answersheets in exchange of lakhs of rupees.

Congress leader KK Mishra said, “CBI is a probe agency & not a court to give a clean chit to the CM.” He further added CM himself has accepted the Vyapam scam was a blot on his face. He further alleged that the CBI is trying to mislead the SC by showing false report under political pressure.

CBI investigation revealed that the candidate took the alleged assistance of Middlemen for arranging Solver to appear for him in the said examination. The Middlemen arranged one Solver for the written examination.

Earlier, in February, The Supreme Court cancelled the degrees of 634 doctors on Monday and said admissions obtained through a mass fraud called "Vyapam scam" could not be condoned. All these admissions to MBBS courses between 2008 and 2012 were cancelled by the MP Professional Examination Board.

Vyapam is a government body to conduct examinations for government jobs in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The scam involves massive irregularities and corruption in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) or MP Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal. It has been alleged that the corrupt officials at the board took money to compromise the examination and recruitment for several professional course including Pre-Engineering, Pre-Medical, MCA, Teaching etc. The current accusations mostly involve teaching recruitments.