Former MP education minister chargesheeted in Vyapam scam: Sources

New Delhi, January 16

A former minister is among several people who have been formally charged with corruption the 2011 Vyapam job scam, sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday hours after they submitted a new chargesheet in court.

Former Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma, his Officer on Special Duty OP Shukla and some former senior officials were among 95 people whose names have been mentioned in the chargesheet for suspected irregularities in contractual teachers recruitment through Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, officials said here.

The agency has named 83 candidates, four officials of Vyapam and eight middlemen in its charge sheet.

"It was revealed from the files contained in the hard disk of the computer of the then principal system analyst of Vyapam that marks of certain candidates were allegedly increased to enable them to qualify the said test," CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said on Tuesday.

He said it was verified with the OMR answer sheets of the candidates and it was found that marks of 84 candidates were increased in the final result to make them qualify the examination.

"One candidate is absconding and investigation is continuing in his case," he said.

The CBI has claimed that the then principal system analyst of Vyapam was given details of candidates by the accused public servants.

The analysis of his computer shows that he had created a private file with details of the candidates and people who recommended their names.

The spokesperson said prior to the declaration of the result, the official created another database of the favoured candidates.

"It was also alleged that in the result database, he increased the marks as per the requirement of the candidates so as to make them qualify the examination and thereafter the actual marks obtained by the 84 accused candidates were deleted from the result file," he said.

He said no change in the OMR answer sheets could be made by him.

"The original marks obtained by the accused candidates, as per the OMR sheets, were less than the marks declared in the result," he said. PTI