Vyapam scam: Five sentenced to imprisonment for fraud at MP medical entrance test in 2013

INDORE: A court here on Thursday sentenced five people to five years' rigorous imprisonment after finding them guilty of a fraud at the 2013 Pre Medical Test conducted by the Madhya Pradesh government's Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or `Vyapam'. The convict included a `solver' hailing from Bihar who impersonated candidates in order to facilitate a good score.

Judge Sanjay Kumar Gupta convicted Ravindra Kumar, Vikrant Kumar, Ramchitra Jatav, Rakesh Khanna and Brajesh under relevant Indian Penal Code sections and the Madhya Pradesh Examination Recognition Act, said special CBI prosecutor Ranjan Sharma. The prosecution examined 52 witnesses, he said.

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Vikrant Kumar, a resident of Nalanda district in Bihar, wrote the PMT for Ravindra Kumar, a resident of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, he said, adding that the other three acted as middlemen or touts. Ravindra Kumar subsequently got admission to the MBBS course at Government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore.

After the wider Vyapam scam, which included several such exam manipulation rackets, came to light, Ravindra got frightened and confessed to the college dean about having cleared the PMT through fraudulent means, Sharma said. The dean asked him to give his statement in writing but he did not and later became untraceable, he said. As much as Rs 7.5 lakh had exchanged hands in the case, the prosecutor said.