Bhopal: The then exam controller Pankaj Trivedi and senior system analyst Nitin Mahindra of Vyapam enjoyed many foreign trips and even got expansive gifts from the racketeers in lieu of extending them the favours. This was stated in the CBI’s charge sheet submitted in the Court in connection with Vyapam’s PMT-2012 case.
The four racketeers – Dr Jagdish Sagar, Dr Sanjiv Shilpkar, Santosh Gupta and Tarang Sharma-, were good friends and used to keep the two Vyapam officials Trivedi and Mahindra in good humour. Tarang Sharma who owns a travelling agency, had arranged many foreign tours for the Mahindra, Trivedi and his wife, the expenditure of which were borne by him. The CBI has also found business dealing between them. Dr Sagar enjoyed good terms with Mahindra and the latter at his behest had manipulated the roll numbers in the examination.
In the year 2009, Sagar had gifted a luxury car to Mahindra, which was purchased in hard cash. Sagar had purchased the vehicle in the name of Anil Mahindra, brother of Nitin Mahindra. After the exposure of Vyapam scam, STF had seized the car in the year 2013. The Vyapam officials had violated the norms while deciding on the examination centres. Sagar had asked the officials to set up examination centres at private schools, which the officials conceded. Three centres were set up at private schools in Indore. Many examination forms had same postal address, stated the CBI charge sheet.
Sagar, who used to live at H.No 234 at Vijay Nagar , Indore, had mentioned the said address on a number of forms. For this he had taken consent of the candidates and their parents. Throwing more light on the anomalies in the PMT 2012 exams, The CBI in its charge sheet mentioned that fee was deposited from various corners of the nation including Patna, Kota, Kanpur and Gwalior among others. Interestingly, while the names of the account holders depositing the fees were different, the bank remained the same. Most of the accounts were in names of stationery sellers. In the Vyapam’s PMT-2012 case, 701 roll numbers were found mismatched, while in the exam 38671 candidates had appeared.
The then director Tarun Kumar Pithode had found the irregularity and constituted a committee to probe into it. Following the investigations, the director had instructed the officials to remain vigilant and not to display such carelessness again. The Vyapam had taken the up report on November 15, 2013, but by then the process of PMT-2012 was completed.
