Nine years after the scandal broke out, all the accused out on bail

Bhopal, Sep 24 All the accused persons in the Vyapam scam, who were either arrested by Madhya Pradesh police or by the CBI, and were charge-sheeted, are now out on bail. Most of them were granted interim bail by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, including nine who were granted conditional bail in March 2022.

Those who were granted conditional bail by the high court are former officials of a private medical college, who were accused of cheating and forgery, among other offences, related to the pre-medical test (PMT 2013) for admissions in MBBS course under the multi-crore Vyapam scam.

Special public prosecutor Satish Dinkar, who is representing the CBI in a Bhopal district court, told that all the accused, who are yet to be convicted, including Vyapam's employees, are now out on bail.

"Only those are in prison who have been convicted during the ongoing trial. Some of them have got interim bail and some conditional bail under the legal procedure," Dinkar said.

The key accused in the multi-layer scam, which broke out in 2013, include Nitin Mahendra (principal system analyst in Vyapam), Ajay Sen (senior system analyst), Pankaj Trivedi (Vyapam exam controller), C.K. Mishra and O.P. Shukla, both OSDs to then MP Technical Education Minister late Laxmikant Sharma.

Besides these, several organised rackets were involved in the Vyapam scam, as the CBI had earlier mentioned in its reports. These include gangs led by Jagdish Sagar, Sanjeev Shilpakar and Sanjay Gupta, who were described as the kingpins of the PMT 2013 exam.

Over 2,000 people were made accused, including government officials, middlemen, racketeers, and politic. Notably, officials posted in prominent offices, including the office of the Governor and Chief Minister, were also found involved.

The then MP Governor Ram Naresh Yadav's son Shailesh Yadav was also named as accused in the case. Shailesh was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his father's residence in March 2015.

Several IAS and IPS officers were also found to be involved, directly or indirectly, in the multi-crore Vyapam scam. Out of over 2,000 accused in the case, more than 1,300 are connected with just two cases PMT exams 2012 and 2013.

At least 30 accused and witnesses have died who were named as involved in PMT exams 2012 and 2013, Dinkar said.