Mumbai: TET exam scam accused gets bail from HC

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to an accused, Saurabh Tripathi, vice-president of a firm that conducted the TET examination in 2018 in which a scam allegedly took place. Ineligible candidates were added to the selected list in exchange for bribes from the candidates.

A single bench of Justice CV Bhadang said in the order that even if it is assumed that he worked as a consultant with the firm, he is not shown to be a beneficiary of having any specific role in the entire episode. The state had opposed his bail application stating that one other accused is absconding and that investigation is in progress. The order said regarding this, that he cannot be detained behind bars on the ground that some co-accused are still at large and that there is a possibility of a further probe.

Appearing for Tripathi, advocate Aniket Nikam had argued that Tripathi was not concerned with the firm when the examination was held or the result was declared. It was argued that he had left the firm some months prior to the examination. The prosecution had alleged that he was in a conspiracy meeting in which the crime was planned. Advocate Nikam had argued on this aspect, that the meeting held in Dec 2017, had nothing to do with the examination in question.

As per the case, as many as 500 unqualified candidates were declared as qualified in the TET exam by obtaining their list from agents. An amount of Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000 were received from each candidate and their names were added to the selected list.