Vyapam cancels 1,236 doctor degrees

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), famously known as Vyapam, has cancelled degrees of 1,263 medical students found to have gained admissions in the medical colleges by adopting unfair means.

They included 634 medicos, whose pleas to stay decision by the MPPEB to cancel their degrees was rejected by Supreme Court recently. According to Vyapam director Bhaskar Lakshakar, all the 1,263 medicos had cleared the pre-medical tests (PMT) between 2008 and 2013.

“Special Task Force (STF) has completed investigation against 469 students. Investigation of another 62 students was done by medical college deans and 98 by different agencies for reasons of using unfair means,” Vyapam sources said.

After losing the case in the High Court against the Vyapam, 144 students had moved the SC. The apex court upheld the decision of the high court and cancelled degrees of 634 students.

Thereafter, the admission of 629 students was also cancelled. The Vyapam scandal involving irregularities in sadmissions in different medical colleges in MP surfaced in June, 2013 when a racket that helped students cleared the PMTs was busted. As many as 52 people, directly or indirectly involved in the scam, died in mysterious circumstances during investigation in the scam, causing the issue to hog national limelight.

Recently, the CBI suspects there were over 90 instances in the Vyapam scam wherein candidates lied that the middlemen, who hired examinees to appear on their behalf, were dead.

It is alleged that a large number of bright students were hired by the candidates to take the medical entrance exam conducted by Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board known as Vyapam, CBI sources said.