Vyapam scam

The Vyapam scam is an admission & recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), popularly known by its Hindi acronym "Vyapam" (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal), is a self-financed and autonomous body incorporated by the State government responsible for conducting several entrance tests in the state. These entrance exams are held for recruitment in government jobs and admissions in educational institutes of the state. The scam involved a collusion of undeserving candidates, who bribed politicians and MPPEB officials through middlemen, to get high ranks in these entrance tests.

The scam involved 13 different exams conducted by Vyapam, for selection of medical students and state government employees (including food inspectors, transport constables, police personnel, school teachers, dairy supply officers and forest guards). The exams were taken by around 3.2 million students.^[1]

Cases of irregularities in these entrance tests had been reported since the mid-1990s, and the first FIR was filed in 2000. However, until 2009, such cases were not thought to be part of an organized ring. When major complaints surfaced in the pre-medical test (PMT) in 2009, the state government established a committee to investigate the matter. The committee released its report in 2011, and over a hundred people were arrested by the police.

The sheer scale of the scam came to light in 2013, when the Indore police arrested 20 people who had come to impersonate candidates for PMT 2009. The interrogation of these people led to the arrest of Jagdish Sagar, the leader of an organized racket involved in the scam. The state government established a Special Task Force (STF) on 26 August 2013. Subsequent interrogations and arrests uncovered the involvement of several politicians, bureaucrats, MPPEB officials, racket leaders, middlemen, candidates and their parents in the scam. By June 2015, more than 2000 people had been arrested in connection with the scam. These included the state's ex-education minister Laxmikant Sharma and over a hundred other politicians. In July 2015, the Supreme Court of India issued an order to transfer the case to the country's premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The scam

Vyapam is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting large-scale competitive tests for admission to various professional courses and for recruitment to government jobs.^[2]

The Vyapam scam involved collusion among exam candidates, government officials and middlemen: undeserving candidates were offered high marks in the exams, in exchange for kickbacks. The following tricks were used by those involved in the scam:^[3]

Impersonation

Brilliant students (including previous years' top candidates) or practicing doctors would be paid to impersonate exam candidates. The photograph on the candidate's admit card was replaced by the impersonator's photograph. After the exam, it was changed back to the original. This was done in collusion with the corrupt board officials.

Copying

Undeserving candidates bribed the board officials through middlemen to be seated strategically next to a brilliant dummy candidate, who was also paid money. The dummy candidate let them copy from his sheet or exchanged the sheet at the end of the exam.

Manipulation of records and answer sheets

The undeserving candidates would leave their OMR answer sheets blank or fill in only the answers they were sure about. The corrupt board officials would manipulate records to give these candidates randomly high percentages. To avoid being caught in case of an audit, they would file an RTI request demanding to view these answer sheets, and fill in the answers according to the marks.

Leaking the answer key

The corrupt board officials leaked the answer key to the selected candidates.

Unearthing of the scam

Cases of malpractice in Vyapam scam had been reported since 1995, and the first FIR was found in 2000 in Chhatarpur district. In 2004, seven cases were registered in Khandwa district. However, such reports of malpractice were seen as isolated cases.^[4]

2009-11: Initial probe by committee

A report by the Madhya Pradesh Local Fund Audit office for 2007-08 found several financial and administrative irregularities in MPPEB, including unauthorized disposal of application forms.^[4] It was suspected that the application forms were being destroyed so that they could not be compared to exam admit cards and other records. In 2009, fresh complaints of irregularities in the pre-medical test (PMT) surfaced.^[5] Indore-based activist Anand Rai filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) requesting investigation into the scam.^[6] In 2009, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan set up a committee headed by the State Joint Director of Medical Education to probe the allegations.^[7]

In July 2011, MPPEB monitored 145 suspects during the Pre-Medical Test (PMT). Most of the suspects did not turn up, but 8 were caught for impersonating others. This included Kanpur-based Satyendra Varma, who had accepted ₹ 4 lakh to appear in place of Ashish Yadav, in Indore.^[8] 15 exam toppers from the previous year appeared for the exam. Suspecting that these people were called in to impersonate others or to help candidates cheat by sitting adjacent to them, MPPEB asked them to explain their reasons for re-taking the exams. MPPEB also started using biometric technology: thumb impressions and photographs of all the persons appearing for the exam were taken to be matched during the post-results counselling.^[9]

The committee set up by Chouhan in 2009 submitted its report to the government in November 2011. It mentioned that 114 candidates had passed PMT using impersonation. The candidates, mostly from rich families, had been impersonated by practicing doctors and talented medical students, some of whom had come from neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The middlemen had charged each candidate ₹ 1-4 million. The findings raised concern that several fake doctors admitted through PMT in earlier years might have graduated as practitioners. The possibility of government officials being involved in the scam was also mentioned.^[10]

In December 2011, the MP Government announced that all the students who had gained admissions by fraudulent means would be asked to quit their courses. This included those who had already spent some years taking the course.^[9]

In 2012, Indore police arrested four people who had come to impersonate candidates in the PMT exam. The arrested had been promised sums ranging from ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 each.^[11]

2013 MP-PMT exam

The massive scale of the Vyapam scam came to light in 2013. On the night of 6–7 July, the Indore police arrested 20 people from various city hotels. These people, 17 of whom were from Uttar Pradesh, had come to impersonate local candidates in the PMT exam scheduled on 7 July 2013.^[12] The impersonators had been promised sums ranging from ₹ 50,000 to ₹ 100,000.^[11] Based on information collected during the interrogation of these 20 impersonators, Indore police found out that an organized racket headed by Jagdish Sagar was involved in the scam. After the arrests and the revelation, Dr. Anand Rai submitted a complaint to the local Superintendent of Police (economic offence wing), seeking a detailed investigation. He sought probe into the role of MPPEB's chairman, exam controller, assistant controller and deputy controller.^[13]

On 13 July 2013, Jagdish Sagar was arrested in Mumbai.^[14] A list containing names of 317 students was confiscated from him. MPPEB's exam controller Pankaj Trivedi, who was not a suspect in the scam at that time, tried to protect these students. He sent a letter to various government departments and the deans of medical colleges, insisting that these students should be allowed admission once they sign an affidavit. The affidavit would state that they didn't use any unfair means, and that their admissions would be canceled if they were found guilty in the police investigations. On 28 September 2013, Trivedi was also arrested, based on Jagdish Sagar's interrogation.^[15] On 5 October, the Special Task Force (STF) of the police chargesheeted 28 people, including Jagdish Sagar. In December 2013, the STF produced a 23,000-page supplementary chargesheet against 34 accused in the Indore district court. Out of these 34 accused chargesheeted, 30 were students and their guardians. Four others included Pankaj Trivedi, Dr. Sanjeev Shilpkar and Dr. Jagdish Sagar's accomplice Gangaram Pipliya.^[12]

Other exams probed

In November 2013, the STF found that the scamsters had rigged five recruitment tests: Pre-PG, Food Inspector Selection Test, Milk Federation test, Subedar-Sub Inspector and Platoon Commander Selection Test and Police Constable Recruitment Test - all held during 2012 for government jobs in the state. For Pre-PG Test of 2012, MPPEB's former examination controller Dr Pankaj Trivedi and its system analyst Nitin Mahindra provided model answer keys to candidates through photocopies. For the other four exams, the Vyapam officials manipulated the OMR answer sheets by taking them out of the strong room. Different FIRs against 153 people, including Sudhir Sharma, were filed. Sharma had earlier been interrogated by CBI in mining scam of Madhya Pradesh.^[16] In March 2014, the government announced that the STF was investigating rigging of nine examinations, and 127 people had been arrested.^[17]

The previous years' PMT exams were also investigated. The STF found that 286 candidates had cleared PMT-2012 through fraudulent means. On 29 April 2014, 27 students of MGM Medical College in Indore were expelled for having used fraudulent means to clear PMT-2012.^[18]

In June 2014, the High Court asked the police why several of the accused in the case had not been arrested yet. Following this, the STF made several arrests. On 15 June, the STF arrested the state's former technical education minister and BJP leader Laxmikant Sharma for his alleged involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam. On 18 and 19 June 2014, the police arrested over 100 medical students from different parts of the state, for their involvement in the PMT scam.^[19]

In September 2014, the STF revealed that Jagdish Sagar's racket had also rigged the entrance exams for recruitment in SBI and other nationalized banks. These entrance exams included the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection's exams and the SBI Probationary Officer's exam.^[20]

Investigations

Initial investigations into the irregularities were conducted by the various city units of the state police. During 2009-11, a committee established by the state government and headed by the State Joint Director of Medical Education, probed the irregularities in the PMT exam.^[7]

After the role of organized crime rackets and politicians in the scam came to light, the state government formed a Special Task Force (STF) of the police on 26 August 2013, to investigate the scam. Several activists and politicians, including members of the major opposition Indian National Congress party, demanded a CBI probe in the scam under the supervision of the Supreme Court of India.^[21] Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan did not entertain the suggestion of a CBI inquiry to the probe initially.^[22] On November 5, 2014, Madhya Pradesh High Court also rejected the Congress leader Digvijay Singh's petition for CBI probe and instead ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to act as a watchdog for the court.^[23] The SIT is a three-member team chaired by Justice Chandresh Bhushan, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. During 2014-2015, the scam was investigated by the STF under the supervision of SIT.^[24]

On 7 July 2015, after controversy about increasing number of allegedly suspicious deaths, Chouhan informed media that he will write to High Court of Madhya Pradesh requesting to order a CBI probe into the scam.^[25] On the same day, the opposition National Congress Party requested for resignation of Chouhan to allow fair probe into the scam.^[26] Application was filed before the High Court to transfer the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which however ordered to await the decision of the Supreme Court on similar applications. On 9 July 2015, the Attorney General for India told Supreme Court that State of Madhya Pradesh had no objection whatsoever for transferring the investigation to the CBI, upon which the Supreme Court ordered to transfer the 'criminal cases related to the scam and also the cases related to deaths allegedly linked with scam to the CBI, country's premier investigating agency.^[27] However who will monitor the investigation process was not announced.^[28][29]

Key arrests

By June 2015, more than 2000 people had been arrested in connection with the scam.^[30]

Politicians and bureaucrats

Laxmikant Sharma, ex-Education Minister (M.P)

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Laxmikant Sharma was the in-charge of MPPEB in his capacity as the state's Technical Education Minister. He was initially arrested for his involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam, based on the information recovered from the Excel sheet maintained by Nitin Mohindra. Later, he was also booked for irregularities in the constables recruitment examinations; according to the STF, he recommended names of at least 15 candidates for recruitment as constables.^[31] He resigned from BJP in June 2014, after being sent to four days police remand.^[32] Sharma claimed innocence, placing the blame on his officer OP Shukla, and pointed out that his own daughter had failed PMT twice.^[33]

O. P. Shukla

He was posted as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with then Technical Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma. Soon after the investigations gained momentum, he went underground and surrendered two months after the investigation team released a lookout notice for him. He allegedly took 8.5 million (85 lakhs) Rupees from the candidates for clearing the medical entrance test.^[34]

Sudhir Sharma

A mining businessman, Sudhir Sharma was once an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the education minister Laxmikant Sharma. He was involved in police constable recruitment examination scam of 2012. After absconding initially, he surrendered to the STF in December 2013.^[35] The STF questioned him twice, but did not arrest him at the time. After STF found prosecutable evidence against him, he again went missing. The STF announced a cash reward of ₹ 5000 for information on him.^[36] He surrendered before the court in 2014, and was arrested by the STF.^[37]

During 2010-2013, Sharma had provided payoffs to many politicians and bureaucrats, including former Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Prabhat Jha and his sons, Congress MLA Veer Singh Bhuria, several ABVP leaders, RSS functionary Suresh Soni, and many civil servants. Laxmikant Sharma was the biggest beneficiary of his kickbacks. He also received large sums of money from educational institutes regularly.^[38]

R. K. Shivhare, Suspended IPS Officer

He is an accused for his alleged involvement in the recruitment of sub-inspector and platoon commander examination of 2012 conducted by Vyapam. He is also an accused in getting his daughter and son-in-law admitted in the medical college by fraudulent means. When the probe agency registered a case against him, he was suspended but evaded arrest. He was declared absconder and a reward or Rs. 3000 was put against him. He later surrendered on April 21, 2014.^[39]

Ravikant Dwivedi, Suspended Joint Commissioner (Revenue)

He was arrested for getting his son admitted into one of the premiere medical colleges through unfair means. Later, the state anti-corruption wing raided his house and found cash, jewellery, property worth Rs. 600-700 million.^[40]

Racket leaders

Several organized rackets were involved in the Vyapam scam. These included the gangs led by Dr. Jagdish Sagar, Dr. Sanjeev Shilpakar and Sanjay Gupta, who were described as "kingpins" of the PMT scam. For PMT 2013, Dr. Sagar had given 317, Shilpakar 92 and Sanjay Gupta 48 names. Mahendra had recorded the details of these candidates in his computer and destroyed the list. While allotting roll numbers to these candidates, the slots immediately before or after them were left blank. These roll numbers were then allotted to fake candidates. The roll numbers were set at their homes and brought to office in a pen drive. After reaching the office, Mahendra uploaded the roll numbers to the computers. He then used to telephone the middlemen and provide a confirmation.

Dr. Jagdish Sagar

Indore-based Jagdish Sagar helped around 140 students get selected to the medical courses illegally, during 2009-12 alone.^[41] He arranged impersonators, largely sourced from Uttar Pradesh. He ran the alleged racket since late 1990s, and had amassed a huge amount of wealth, including several real estate properties.^[42] He was arrested in 2003 on similar charges, but the police did not keep a watch on him after his release.^[43]

Dr Sanjeev Shilpakar

Bhopal-based Shilpakar was a junior of Jagdish Sagar in medical college, and started his own racket inspired by him. For PMT 2013, Shilpakar had enlisted 92 candidates, out of which 45 candidates had already paid him ₹ 30 million. In turn, Shilpakar had bribed MPPEB officials including Nitin Mahindra, impersonators and brokers who brought candidates to him. He absconded after the arrest of Jagdish Sagar, but was later arrested by the STF.^[44]

Sudhir Rai, Santosh Gupta, Tarang Sharma

This gang was much bigger than (and a competitor to) Sagar's racket, and charged upwards of ₹ 2.5 million per candidate. The gang also facilitated admissions to medical colleges in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Rai-Gupta racket was more organized than Sagar's racket and had branches in Ujjain, Shahdol, Sagar and Ratlam. Rai arranged candidates; Gupta arranged impersonators, most of whom came from Bihar. The gang is believed to have helped over 500 candidates gain admission to medical colleges illegally.^[45]

MPPEB employees

Pankaj Trivedi, MPPEB Examination Controller

He was arrested in September 2013 and is currently in a judicial custody. The state anti-corruption police has recovered around 25 million rupees and numerous properties from his possession that are unknown to his sources of income. Evidence of his partnership in Indore based medical college was also found.^[46] Even after the Jagdish Sagar's racket was exposed, Trivedi managed to get an order that allowed Sagar's 317 candidates to get admission to medical courses on submission of an affidavit.^[15]

CK Mishra, Officer, Vyapam

CK Mishra has admitted that he was working for Dr. Sagar, Santosh Gupta and Sanjiv Shilpkar since 2009. In 2009, Dr. Sagar had given him application forms of 20 candidates, who were to be allotted roll numbers in such a way that in the exam, their seats were one behind the other. Rs 50,000 per roll number was paid to him. Thus, he received Rs 1 million. In 2010, Dr. Sagar gave forms of 40 students. This time Rs 2 million was paid. In 2012, Dr. Sagar took contract of 60 students, Shilpkar gave roll numbers of 20 boys. They paid Rs 3 million and Rs 1 million respectively.^[47]

Nitin Mohindra / Nitin Mahendra (Principal System Analyst) and Ajay Sen (Senior System Analyst)

Vyapam programmer Yashwant Parnekar and clerk Yuvraj Hingve said in their statements that the computers of Mahindra and Sen were not linked with the main server of Vyapam. These two officers could access the data stored in 25 other computers at Vyapam but the data in their computers could not be accessed by anyone. Taking advantage of this, they allotted roll numbers and examination centers as per their wish.^[48]

Others

Dr. G S Khanuja

On September 13, 2014, Special Task Force (STF) arrested the COO of Aurbindo hospital located in Indore. His son secured 12th rank in the medical examination of 2012 through unfair means.^[49]

Mohit Chaudhary

Mohit Chaudhary, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was an MBBS student at MGM Medical College Indore, when he was first named in the Vyapam scam case. He had been named by some students accused of clearing MP PMT-2013 fraudulently.

Earlier, in 2012, he had been arrested by Delhi Police for helping students cheat in the AIIMS post-graduate entrance examination. He charged each candidate ₹ 15-18 lakh for a seat in AIIMS. For cheating during the exam, he provided the candidates a shirt with a Bluetooth chip stitched into it, tiny earphones and SIM cards.^[50]

Narendra Dev Azad (Jatav)

On February 19, 2015, the special investigation team (SIT) arrested him on the charges of acting as a middleman in the admission of Amar Singh Medha in 2009 in MGM College, Indore.^[51]

Dr. Vinod Bhandari

He is the main accused and was arrested on the charges of illegally helping students to get admission through Vyapam officers.^[52] He fled to Mauritius when he was named in the scam and returned only after an anticipatory bail was granted by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.^[53]

Animesh Akash Singh

He worked as a broker and got admitted four candidates in PMT.^[16]

Jitendra Malviya

A third year student of MBBS at MGM College of Indore who had got admitted one candidate in PMT 2013 through Dr. Sanjeev Shilpakar.^[16]

Allegations of threats to whistleblowers and activists

Anand Rai

Indore-based Dr. Anand Rai filed a PIL which led to an investigation in the scam. He has reported receiving regular threat calls and has also alleged that contract killers were hired to kill him. In 2013, he approached the court requesting security cover. He was told to pay ₹ 50,000 per month for police protection, although his monthly salary was only ₹ 38,000. In 2015, he was provided with a security guard.^[3] Rai was accused of being a Congress agent by a BJP spokesperson, but he refuted the accusation pointing out that he had been a member of BJP, and was active in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activities during from 2005 to 2013.^[54] He has also filed a petition in Supreme Court of India to hand over the investigation of DMAT scam, a private medical college admission scam.^[55]

In July 2015, Dr. Rai was transferred from Indore to Dhar district. He alleged that it was done to harass him as he lodged a complaint with CBI against former Union minister and BJP leader Vikram Verma. In the complaint it was alleged that Vikram Verma used his influence to get his daughter transferred from Ghaziabad to Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.^[56]

On September 2, 2015, Dr. Rai submitted an affidavit in Madhya Pradesh High Court alleging that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met him and proposed to cancel the transfer orders if he stops campaigning against him over Vyapam and DMAT scam. The principal secretary confirmed the meeting but said it was arranged at the request of Dr. Rai as he wanted to share some scam related information.^[57]

Ashish Chaturvedi

Gwalior-based social activist Ashish Chaturvedi lodged a complaint against 8 people, one of whom was Gulab Singh Kirar's son Shakti Singh; Kirar is a relative of the Chief Minister. Chaturvedi had also petitioned CBI to probe admissions of 5,000 doctors in MBBS and PG courses of 2003-2013 in all state colleges. He suffered three attacks on his life, including an abduction bid. He has alleged that the police refused to provide him adequate protection after he complained of threats to his life. The police reportedly asked him to pay ₹ 50,000 for protection or remain confined in his home.^[58]

Prashant Pandey

A former IT consultant hired with the Special Task Force (STF), Prashant Pandey also claims to be a whistleblower. He was arrested in 2014 for trying to use the team's information to blackmail the Vyapam accused.^[59] He later claimed that the investigators were trying to shield the Chief Minister by tampering evidence, and were harassing him for exposing the alleged tampering. An Excel sheet allegedly implicating the Chief Minister, and claimed by Pandey to be an original tamper-free version, was declared as a forgery by the High Court.^[60] The Madhya Pradesh police registered an FIR against him for leaking information as part of this Excel sheet.^[61] Pandey petitioned to the Delhi High Court, which stayed his arrest.^[62] Pandey has claimed that only five percent of the scam had been probed.^[63]

Allegations against the Governor

The STF also found evidence against the state Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. On February 24, 2015, Yadav was charged for criminal conspiracy in rigging the MPPEB forest guard recruitment examination.^[64] His son Shailesh was an accused in the contractual teachers' recruitment and later found dead in mysterious circumstances in March, 2015. His former officer-on-special-duty Dhanraj Yadav was arrested by STF in 2013 in connection with the scam. The Governor petitioned the High Court arguing that no criminal proceedings could be initiated against him, as the Constitution of India grants him immunity while he is in office. The High Court agreed and stayed his arrest, but ordered the investigations against him to proceed.^[65] The SIT chief declared that the investigators will act against Yadav after his retirement in September 2016.^[66] Three advocates petitioned the Supreme Court to order removal of Yadav as Governor.^[67] A bench comprising Chief Justice of India H. L. Dattu and Justices Arun Kumar Mishra and Amitava Roy has agreed to hear the petition on July 9.^[68] Now, The CBI will investigate the Vyapam scam and more than 30 deaths allegedly linked to the job recruitment scandal, the Supreme Court ruled on 9 July 2015.

Allegations against the Chief Minister

In 2014, Prashant Pandey (aka "Mr. X"), an IT consultant hired by the STF, was arrested for trying to use the team's information to blackmail the Vyapam accused.^[59] Pandey then approached the Indian National Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, and claimed that he was a whistleblower who was being harassed for exposing the role of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the scam. He alleged that the investigating agencies had tampered with the contents of the Excel sheet recovered from hard disk of the scam accused Nitin Mohindra's computer. Mohindra maintained a record of the candidates' names, their roll numbers and the names of those who had recommended them. Hundreds of people were arrested based on the information in this sheet. Pandey claimed that the investigators had modified the original version of the sheet by removing the names of senior BJP leaders, including Chouhan, from the sheet.^[60]

Digvijaya Singh then submitted a 15-page affidavit before the SIT, alleging that the investigators were shielding the Chief Minister. SIT took cognisance of Singh's complaint, and sent both versions of the Excel sheet for forensic analysis. The forensic laboratory reported that the Excel sheet available with STF was genuine, while Pandey's version was forged.^[60][69] Accordingly, Singh's submission was rejected as a forgery by Justice Khanwilkar in the MP High Court.^[70]

Pandey stood by his version, and stated that it had been authenticated by Truth Labs, a private forensic lab.^[60] He approached the Delhi High Court for protection as a whistleblower, claiming persecution by the MP Police. He claimed that he first sent the documents to the BJP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and the Prime Minister's Office; he approached Congress leaders only when he did not receive any response.^[71] Pandey also stated that he was getting threat calls from influential people. The Delhi court therefore ordered police protection for him in February 2015. However, it was withdrawn in mid June 2015.^[72]

Chouhan hit back at his critics, saying that his government should be credited for the exposing the scam. He stated that only 228 out of 350,000 appointments made during his tenure had been affected by the recruitment scam, and unlike previous governments, he had conducted a thorough probe. Replying to Congress' allegations that his wife had got jobs for 17 of her relatives from Gondia, he pointed out that not a single candidate from Gondia had got the job in the question.^[73]

Deaths

A number of people connected to the scam and its investigation, died during the course of investigation. The opposition parties and activists alleged that several of these deaths happened under suspicious circumstances. In 2015, the Special Task Force (STF) submitted a list to High Court, naming 23 people who are believed to have died "unnatural death". According to the STF, most of these deaths took place before it took over the investigation in July 2013. Some media reports claimed that 40+ people associated with the scam had died under mysterious circumstances.^[74]

The State Government dismissed the allegations, arguing that Vyapam conducts very large-scale examinations and thousands of people are admitted or recruited through these exams every year. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan insisted that death of every person linked with Vyapam exams should not be linked to the Vyapam scam.^[75] The state's Home Minister Babulal Gaur claimed that the deaths were "natural".^[76]

According to whistleblower Anand Rai, 10 of these deaths are suspicious, while the rest might be coincidences. The deaths considered as suspicious by him include the deaths of Akshay Singh, Namarata Damor, Narendra Tomar, D K Sakkale, Arun Sharma, Rajendra Arya and four middlemen who died in road accidents.^[77]

According to the High-Court Special Investigation Team (SIT), 32 people in 25-30 age-group identified as 'racketeers' during the investigation, died in suspicious circumstances since the investigation started in 2012. The SIT officials raised concerns that the arrested people were naming those who were already dead, in order to mislead the probe.^[78]

The following is a list of "unnatural deaths" mentioned in the STF and SIT records, plus other deaths alleged to be "suspicious" by the opposition parties and the media.

#	Date of death	Name	Role	Circumstances of death	Source
1	21 November in 2009	Vikas Singh Thakur	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Barwani because of illness and adverse drug reaction	[7][79]
2	12 June 2010	Shyamvir Yadav	Middleman in PMT scam from Gwalior	Died in Raisen in a road mishap	[79][80]
3	14 June 2010	Anshul Sachan	24-year-old MBBS student, who joined the Sagar Medical College in 2009. Allegedly a middleman in the PMT scam.	He and two of his friends died in a road mishap, while returning from Bhopal to Sagar. Their car crashed into a truck near Raisen. According to Anshul's father, the three were drunk and were probably over-speeding. His grandfather does not suspect any foul play in the death either. The truck driver was arrested and later released on bail.	[81]
4	14 June 2010	Anuj Uikey	Middleman in PMT scam from Mandla	Died in Raisen in a road mishap	[79][80]
5	26 October 2010	Gyan Singh Jatav / Yadav	A medical student who hailed from Ruri village in Bhind district. He had eight cases registered against him for being a middleman in the PMT scam.	Died in Gwalior because of liver and kidney failure resulting from an alcohol-related illness. According to his estranged wife, he was a heavy drinker and might have died from because continued drinking even after he had a jaundice infection.	[81]
6	2010	Deepak Verma	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Indore in a road mishap	[79]
7	January 2012	Namrata Damor	A native of Meghnaghar in Jhabua, 25-year-old Namrata was a first year student of MGM Medical College, Indore. Her death was initially ruled as a suicide in 2012. However, in 2014, her name appeared in the list of students who had cleared PMT-2010 using unfair means. Her friend Vishal Verma's name also appeared in the list of candidates who had been impersonated by other students in PMT-2009. Both the students had successfully applied for a transfer from G R Medical College in Gwalior to MGM Medical College in Indore. According to her father Mehtab Singh Damor, Vishal had helped her get this transfer. According to Dr Anand Rai, a whistleblower who exposed the PMT irregularities, she could have been sexually exploited by the masterminds of the scam. Namrata's family claimed that they had an argument with the scam's kingpin Jagdish Sagar and his gang a few days before her disappearance. They had met Jagdish Sagar through Gangaram Pipliya, who was also chargesheeted in the scam. According to them, Vishal was a conduit of Jagdish Sagar.	Namrata went missing on 7 January 2012, soon after her exam results were declared. Unable to reach her on mobile phone, her brother Omprakash arrived in Indore to inquire about her. He lodged a missing person complaint on 12 January. On the same day Namrata went missing, the police had found a mutilated dead body close to the railway tracks in Ujjain district. A ticket reserved for 7 January in Indore-Bilaspur Express was also found with the body, but there was no other identification. An autopsy conducted by a three-doctor panel on January 9 reported that she had died because of "violent asphyxia" as a result of smothering. The police buried the body, and put up its photograph at Ujjain railway station. Omprakash identified the body as that of his sister based on the photograph, and the identity was confirmed after her body was exhumed on 29 January. The police then launched an investigation, but the circumstantial evidence did not support a homicidal death. The police then sought the opinion of Medico-Legal Institute, Bhopal. Its director Dr. DS Barhkur visited and analyzed the incident spot on 7 February 2012, and also looked at the photographs taken by the police. He submitted a 25-page report on 30 March 2012, stating that the three-doctor panel had made lapses in pin-pointing the cause of death. He suggested that Namrata was alive before jumping from the moving train, and recommended that the case should be investigated from the point of abetting Namrata for suicide rather than a homicide. In autopsy, semen was found on her body. Four men were subjected to DNA test to match semen samples collected from her clothes. One of these was Vishal Verma, who had called her several times on her mobile minutes before she died. Vishal's sample allegedly matched with the sample collected from Namrata's clothes, but he was let off after an investigation. The police suspected that she had committed suicide by jumping off the train, because her father had scolded her over her friendship with a boy he disapproved of. This was in January 2012, when the MPPEB scam had not been exposed fully. However, in 2014, both Namrata and Vishal's names appeared in the list of student suspects in the scam, leading to suspicions of foul play. Namrata's family claimed that she had been murdered and her dead body was dumped on the railway tracks. On July 17, 2015, CBI termed her death as murder and registered a murder case.	[82][83][84][85][86]
8	25 October 2012	Aditya Chaudhary (alias Ravi Pippal)	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Sagar; Suicide	[7][79]
9	7 November 2012	Anant Ram Tagore	Accused of getting his son Jagdish a job in the Railway Protection Force (RPF) through the Vyapam scam	Died of cancer in Morena. He had been diagnosed with kidney cancer two years before his death.	[87]
10	28 November 2012	Arvind Shakya	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Gwalior in a road mishap	[79]
11	21 April 2013	Pramod Sharma alias Rinku	Alleged to be a middleman in police constable exam scam, Rinku hailed from Ambah in Morena district. In 2008, he moved to Gwalior, where according to his brother Mahavir, he "fell into bad company". In 2010, he set up coaching centres in Gwalior, and subsequently, went bankrupt.	His brother Mahavir claimed that the death did not look like a suicide: the body was found lying on the floor under a ceiling fan, and there was no sign of any rope having been tied. Mahavir also claimed that he saw blood coming out of Rinku's ears and mouth, nail marks on his forehead and swelling in the head.	[87]
12	12 May 2013	Kuldeep Marawi	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Mandla in a road mishap	[7][79]
13	17 May 2013	Premlata Pandey	Accused in Contract Teachers' scam; a student and a resident of Nehrunagar, Bhopal. Her brother-in-law Rakesh Pandey was also arrested for his role in the scam. Congress has alleged that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's wife Sadhna Singh recommended names of Premlata and her sister-in-law Sandhya Pandey.	According to SIT investigation, she died of liver cancer, two months before the investigation began. In July 2015, CBI reopened the case into her death.	[88][89]
14	10 August 2013	Ashutosh Tiwari	Accused in scam; third-year student of G R Medical College, Gwalior.	Died of heart attack at the campus hospital. According to family and friends, he died of an existing cardiac condition, aggravated by drinking and smoking.	[89]
15	15 September 2013	Tarun Machhar	A student of Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, he was accused of being an impersonator in PMT-2013.	Tarun was riding a bike after midnight, with a friend as a pillion rider. Their bike hit a road divider on Kolar Road in Bhopal. Tarun died, while his friend survived with hand injuries. His father had no doubt about the death being the result of an accident, but his mother said that she was not sure if it was due to an accident or a conspiracy.	[81]
16	9 October 2013	Anand Singh Yadav	Middleman in PMT scam, from Fatehpur	Died in Raisen in a road mishap	[7][79]
17	26 December 2013	Devendra Nagar	Middleman in police constable recruitment scam	Died in Bhind, when his motorcycle collided with another motorcycle. The other rider broke his leg.	[87]
18	21 January 2014	Bunty Sikarwar	Middleman in PMT scam	Committed suicide at his ancestral home in Gwalior, at the age of 32	[87]
19	January 2015	Lalit Golaria	Student accused in PMT fraud	Body found under a bridge in Morena	[79]
20	15 January 2015	Ramendra Singh Bhadoria	A 30-year-old medical student of the Gajra Raja Medical College, Bhadoria was booked in the scam in January 2015. He was accused of using unfair means to clear PMT 2009, using an unknown impersonator. A college committee had recommended his termination.	His body was found hanging at his home in Gwalior, a few days after an FIR was registered against him. The Gwalior police claimed that he committed suicide because of a failed love affair. However, his family members stated that he was being "mentally tortured" by scamsters to keep quiet. His mother also committed suicide by consuming acid a week later.	[90]
21	1 February 2014	Deepak Jain	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Gwalior in a road mishap	[7][79]
22	14 February 2014	Dinesh Jatav	Twenty-eight-year-old Dinesh Jatav worked as a security guard in Morena. He was alleged to be a middleman in PMT scam.	Died in a road accident, near Joura in Morena. He was walking with a cousin when a four-wheeler hit them. His cousin survived the accident. His family did not suspect any conspiracy behind the accident, saying that it was a rainy day, and the driver might have lost control.	[87]
23	20 April 2014	Vikas Pandey	Middleman in PMT scam	Died in Allahabad; Brain haemorrhage	[7][79]
24	15 June 2014	Ravindra Pratap Singh	Student accused in PMT scam	Died in Singrauli; Suspected suicide by poisoning	[7][79][80]
25	4 July 2014	Dr. D.K. Sakalley	He was the dean of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur. Before his death, he had gone on a 30-day medical leave, to avoid pressure from students who had been sacked in connection with the scam.	He is believed to have immolated himself in a garden behind his house. He had been suffering from depression. A suicide note was reported to have been recovered, but the police didn't confirm it to be a case of suicide on the basis that the dean had died under suspicious conditions.	[91][92]
26	13 July 2014	Narendra Rajput	Middleman in PMT scam from Mahoba	Died in Jhansi; Illness	[79][80]
27	February 2015	Amit Sagar	A veterinary student in Mhow, Amit Sagar was named by the prime accused Indrajeet Bhushan in the case.	After Bhushan implicated Sagar in the scam, the police tried to contact him. However, they found that he was already dead. His body was found in a pond in Sheopur district.	[93]
28	25 March 2015	Shailesh Yadav	Fifty-year-old Shailesh was the son of MP's Governor and Congress leader Ram Naresh Yadav. According to one Veerpal Yadav, he allegedly fixed the recruitment of 10 candidates as Grade III teachers. Veerpal told the STF that he handed over a list of 10 candidates and Rs 3 lakh to his friend Vijay Pal, who forwarded them to Shailesh Yadav at Raj Bhavan.	Fifty-year-old Yadav was found dead at Governor's official residence in Lucknow. According to his family, he was a diabetes patient and was under stress after being named in the scam; the cause of his death appeared to be brain haemorrhage. The family didn't suspect any foul play in the death, and called it a natural death. The autopsy was inconclusive and could not ascertain the cause of his death.	[94][95]
29	28 April 2015	Vijay Singh Patel	A pharmacist posted at Shajapur District Jail, Vijay Singh was arrested for his alleged role in three cases related to the scam. He was cleared in one of these cases, and released on bail in February 2015. Subsequently, he was summoned by STF in a fourth case related to police constable recruitment examination. Based on Vijay Singh's statement, STF had arrested the brother-in-law of minister Laxmikant Sharma's OSD O P Shukla	Around mid-April, Vijay Singh visited Kanker to meet his wife Reena, who worked in the school education department there. According to his brother Abhay, he had taken a train from Raipur (nearest railway station) to Bhopal on 16 April. He had called his lawyer at Raipur station on that day. He again called the lawyer on 17 April, informing that he would meet him in two hours. According to Abhay, this indicates that Vijay was already in Bhopal on 17 April. He went missing a few hours before he was scheduled to appear before the STF at the Bhopal special court. His mobile phone was switched off, and his family members had intimated his disappearance to STF. His body was found on 28 April in Kanker, in a lodge run by a BJP MLA. The lodge employees told the police that Singh had checked in on April 24, and the again on April 27. He had asked them to wake him up on the morning of April 28, so that he could catch a train to Bhopal. When he did not open his door, the lodge staff informed the police. The police found his dead body, and suspected suicide as the door was bolted from inside and the postmortem report mentioned that poison was found in his body. However, Singh's family members suspected that he had been killed as part of a larger conspiracy. They pointed out that no suicide note or poison were found in the room, and claimed that the lodge had an open window from which a killer could have escaped.	[96][97]
30	28 June 2015	Narendra Singh Tomar	29-year-old Tomar was posted as an Assistant Veterinary Officer at Raisen. He was arrested on 17 February, for having arranged impersonators to replace the genuine candidates in PMT-2009.	In Indore jail, he complained of chest pain around 11:15 pm. He was taken to Maharaja Yashwant Rao Hospital, where he was declared brought dead. He is said to have died of a heart attack, but his family members alleged foul play. According to his family, Tomar spoke to them in the evening, and did not complain of any discomfort. His cousin stated that he had no health issues, and alleged his death to be a murder.	[74][87][98]
31	28 June 2015	Rajendra Arya	Forty-year-old Rajendra Arya was an assistant professor at Sagar Medical College. He was arrested on 13 May 2014 for helping students "fix their Pre-Medical Test". He was suspended, and was out on bail at the time of his death.	He was admitted to Gwalior's Birla Institute of Medical Research (BIMR) at 8 am, with fever, body ache and vomiting. He was referred to the Relife Hospital, where he died because of liver infection. His son claimed that he was a "normal, healthy person", and that the family was not informed about the exact cause of death.	[81][99]
32	4 July 2015	Akshay Singh	A journalist working with Aaj Tak, 38-year-old Akshay Singh was covering the Vyapam scam.	Akshay Singh suffered a heart attack while interviewing Mehtab Singh, father of Namrata Damor, in her native village near Meghnagar. According to Mehtab, Singh came to his house at 1 pm, and had a glass of water and a cup of tea. After half an hour, he began coughing and foaming in the mouth. He was first taken to the Meghnagar community health centre, and then to a private hospital, where he died. The autopsy suggested that it was a natural death, but the Congress party suspected foul play in his death and demanded an investigation.	[100][101]
33	5 July 2015	Arun Sharma	Arun Sharma had replaced Dr. D.K. Sakalley as the dean of the NS Medical College (Jabalpur), after the latter's death. He was assisting the STF by providing documents on fake medical entrance examinees.	Two months after taking over as the dean, he was found dead at a Delhi hotel the morning after he arrived there. He was supposed to go to Agartala, as part of an inspection team of Delhi-based Medical Council of India.	[102]
34	6 July 2015	Anamika Kushwaha	Trainee Sub Inspector who was recruited through Vyapam in 2014	Allegedly committed suicide. Found dead on a lake in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala claimed that her death was related to Vyapam scam. However, her father stated that her death had nothing to do with Vyapam, and she was being harassed by her in-laws and her husband for money.	[103][104]
35	6 July 2015	Ramakant Pandey	A police constable who was questioned by the STF as a suspect, a few months before his death	Body found hanging from a ceiling fan at the tourist police outpost in Orchha. No suicide note found. The police suspected suicide as Pandey was a depressed, debt-ridden alcoholic.	[104]
36	17 October 2015	Vijay Bahadur	A retired Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer who served as an observer for two recruitment tests in the Vyapam scam.	Found dead on a railway track in Jharsuguda, Orissa while returning from Puri to Bhopal after attending the 1978 batch IFS reunion.	[105]

Other accused declared dead in SIT's report include the following:^[78][79]

1. Anand Singh (Barwani)
2. Anuj Pandey
3. Brijesh Rajput (Barwani)
4. Gyan Singh (Sagar)
5. Manish Kumar Samadhia (Jhansi)
6. Pashupati Nath / Lalit Kumar Pashupatinath Jaiswal
7. Vikram Singh

Reactions on social media

The mysterious deaths of people linked to Vyapam scam triggered dark humour on various social media platforms across India. People compared it to fictional serial killer Dexter and termed it as India's version of Game of Thrones. Due to untimely and sudden death of a journalist who died soon after interviewing the family members of another dead accused, people termed it as inauspicious. An online perception was created that any sort of link to the scam could bring trouble or even mysterious death.^[106]

Various hashtags such as #KhooniVyapam (Bloody Vyapam), #killervyapamscam, #vyapam, #VyapamGenocide, #shivrajisteefado (Shivraj, resign) etc. were used by people to post their reactions.^[106]

See also

• List of scandals in India

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External links

• Special Investigation Team for Vyapam-related cases