The most sensational among the scams which have seen the light of the day involves an IAS officer, who paid Rs. 75 lakh as bribe to secure top position for his son in the entrance examination for admission to the PG courses in government Medical colleges.

Anurag Jain, the son of a senior IAS officer, has been arrested. Anurag Jain was pursuing PG course in the Government Medical College, Indore. Besides Anurag Jain, there are several others who manipulated top positions in the pre-PG test: five other PG students have also been arrested. They include Shani Juneja and Sameer Mandloi. The parents of Shani Juneja and Sameer Mandloi paid Rs. 65 and Rs. 72 lakh respectively to grab positions in merit in the list of successful candidates. Shani Juneja manipulated fourth position in the merit list and got admission in PG Course at the Mahatma Gandhi government Medical College, Indore while Sameer Mandloi managed to get the sixth position. He is also studying in MGM College Indore. All the six arrested students were produced before a court in Bhopal and sent to police custody on remand.

Massive irregularities have been discovered in several examinations conducted by a government organisation known as Vyapam (Hindi abbreviation for MP Professional Examinations Board)

Vyapam conducts examinations for recruitment to various state-level govternment jobs as also for admission to technical and medical educational institutions, including engineering, medical and pharmacy courses. In all, Vypam conducted 59 examinations in the years 2012 and 2013 and a total of 48.43 lakh candidates appeared in these exams.

So far, the Special Task force (STF) of the state police has uncovered scams in Pre-medical test and Pre-PG exam, besides in exams held for recruitment of Food Inspectors, police constables and to various posts in the state milk federation. The selection of 75 students in MBBS course has been cancelled. At least 50 persons, including the Controller of Exams of the Board, chief of its Systems unit, directors of private medical colleges and a host of middlemen, besides the beneficiary students have been arrested and jailed. Crores of rupees in cash have been seized from the homes and offices of the racketeers.

Irregularities of various natures have been found in preparing results for various exam and tests. Some of the arrested persons running these rackets were close to BJP leaders. Among them is Sudhir Sharma, who is very close to Laxmikant Sharma, Minister for Higher and Technical Education. Sharma also held the key portfolio of Information and Public relations. He has been closely associated with a massive advertisement campaign to project the image of Shivraj Singh Chauhan government. More than Rs 100 crore was spent on the campaign. The campaign only focussed on Chauhan. Many cabinet members were unhappy over the systematic campaign to project only Chauhan.

The Special Task Force (STF) of the state police has done a commendable job in exposing the stink in the education sector of the State. Though the STF has already sent many government functionaries to jail, it has not been able to trace Sudhir Sharma, who is regarded as the mastermind of these scams. He is believed to have escaped abroad.

The STF has already registered First Information report (FIR) in connections with irregularities in as many as five examinations. With this the Vyapam stands badly exposed. Very soon, the STF may file FIR in cases pertaining to other examinations too.

There were middlemen at various levels, who had connections with the functionaries of Vyapam, which is headed by a senior IAS officer. Sources said after the name of mining businessman Sudhir Sharma surfacing in the issue, the involvement of some bureaucrats in these irregularities may also come to the fore.

Additional Director General of Police and chief of STF SK Shahi said probe was going on into other examinations and cases are being filed on getting evidence. He said those under custody were being interrogated.

The STF also seized records of five selection tests from Vyapam and Rs. 23 lakh from General Manager of an Indore-based private medical college Pradip Raghuvanshi. He was one of the scores of middlemen involved in the racket. Official sources said, so far Rs. 1.42 crore have been seized from Raghuvanshi in three phases.

Besides Vyapam, scams have also surfaced in the BDS (Bachelor of dental surgery) exam conducted by the Bhopal University, in High School Open exam conducted by MP Board of Secondary education and in Typing and Stenography exam conducted by the Directorate of Public Instructions.

The uncovering of a series of rackets in the education sector has not only shaken the political and administrative circles but has come as a shock for lakhs of students and their parents who appeared in these exams and toiled hard for success, only to discover that big moolah and not hard work was the key to clearing these exams. (IPA Service)