A Special CBI court in Bhopal on Thursday convited five people and sentenced them to seven years rigorous imprisonment in connection with the Vyapam scam.
The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each, while their two co-accused were acquitted due to lack of solid evidence.
Satish Dinkar, Special Public Prosecutor representing CBI in the court, said the the sentenced people were involved in scam in police constable exams held in 2013.
The convicted were the part of an "engine-bogie" system wherein seating arrangements were manipulated so that a paid smarter student was seated between two others to copy answers.
Of the five sentenced, four identified as Kamal Kishor, Amar Singh, Nagendra Singh, Suresh Singh, had used dummy candidate in exam, while one person had appeared for exams in place of other candidate.
"A total of 32 witnesses related with this particular case were cross-examined in the court. On the basis of their testimony and documents of 200 pages related with scam, justice Nitiraj Singh Sisodiya, who is hearing Vyapam case, pronounced the judgement on Thursday," Dinkar told IANS.
Out of 160 cases related with multi-layer Vyapam Scam that was unearthed in 2013 and further investigated by the CBI, Bhopal district court is hearing 54 cases, while others cases are being heard in different courts in Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur.
Dinkar claimed that around 50 per cent cases have been nixed, while the trial in main case, which has over 1300 accused (engine-bogi) part is underway. Notably, all key accused in the case, including employees of Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or Vyapam, are out on bail.
