Ram Naresh Yadav finally quits as MP Governor: All you need to know about multi-crore Vyapam scam

Bhopal, Feb 25: The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday asked Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav to step down after his name appeared in FIR in Vyapam scam.

The scam has been in the news for alleged corruption in conducting examinations for recruitment to various state government jobs.

What is Vyapam scam?

The massive recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh, estimated to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore, allegedly been running for the past nine to ten years.

The scam pertains to manipulation in the selection process for government jobs conducted by MP Professional Examination Board (MPPEB). The scam is related to the pre-medical test and recruitment to various government services, including teachers, constables and food inspectors.

The scam first came into light when the local police busted a racket that helped candidates clear the PMT through unfair means. Further investigation led the police to uncover fraud in various other exams for State Government jobs. Call records later on brought not just senior IAS and IPS officials, retired judges, journalists in the dock, but also the several political bigwigs.

According to a PIL in the Jabalpur Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), which conducts entrance and recruitment tests for admission in medical and engineering courses, and selection in certain Government services, has duped lakhs of candidates by setting up proxy candidates to clear various examinations. It also alleged that in the last nine years the MPPEB has made nearly Rs 125 crore by charging fees for 150 recruitment examinations, whose results were fixed.

MP High Court handed over case to STF

Seeing the magnitude of the scam, the State Government handed over the case to Special Task Force for carrying out investigation.

So far, 1,000 out of 1.47 lakh appointments and selections made by MPPEB have been found to be fake.

The kingpin of the impersonation racket Dr. Jagdish Sagar was arrested and subsequently several other influential people were arrested including ex-Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma, MPPEB's exam controller Pankaj Trivedi, MPPEB's system analysts Nitin Mahendra and Ajay Sen and state PMT's examination in-charge C. K. Mishra.

The credit to expose the scam goes to Indore based medical practitioner Dr. Anand Rai.

A Madhya Pradesh High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) is supervising the probe being done by the state's Special Task Force (STF)

The investigation so far:

Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh police under the supervision of High Court is conducting the investigations.

Enforcement Directorate under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in March 2014, booked MPPEB's exam controller Pankaj Trivedi along with 25 other accused including former Madhya Pradesh higher education minister Laxmikant Sharma and his former officer on special duty O.P. Shukla.

720 parents and students were booked and more than 129 politicians, officials and middlemen were arrested.

What is Vyapam or MPPEB?

Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) also known as Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal (Vyapam) is a self-financed and an autonomous body incorporated by the State government.

It has the responsibility of conducting entrance tests for admission to various colleges and jobs in Madhya Pradesh.

Who are the whistleblowers of the case?

Indore based Dr. Anand Rai and Gwalior based social activist Ashish Chaturvedi are the two main whistle blowers of this scam.