The Supreme Court on Monday (February 13) cancelled the admissions of more than 634 students who had enrolled in the five-year MBBS course in Madhya Pradesh from 2008 to 2012. A bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar dismissed all the petitions filed by the students challenging the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Also read: Vyapam scam main accused, arrested from Kanpur, confessed: Police
The apex court said it would not interfere with the high court's order while upholding the cancelled admissions.
Earlier reports said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had a breakthrough in the case when they identified 121 impersonators who had taken the exams on behalf of the students. The investigating agency went through the applications of 9.5 lakh medical students across India.
Among hundreds of applicants for the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) 2009 and 2010 and pre-PG (medical) entrance test conducted by Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), abbreviated as Vyapam in Hindi, majority of candidates had morphed their photographs in the online application forms.
CBI personnel visited hundreds of medical colleges and medical coaching institutes in six states — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Bihar — to gather more information on the medical aspirants.
"For us, it was a challenge to match these photos with the ones on PMT and pre-PG forms, and advanced forensic software was used by experts, along with anthropometric principles, to overcome the morphing disguise of the existing pictures. However, our teams worked hard and identified 121 people who appeared for others, out of 9.5 lakh students," a source told TOI.
The Central Forensic Science Laboratory went through specimen handwriting and thumbprints to match them with question-answer and online OMR/marksheets.
Of the 121 suspects, 73 had already joined the investigation while 20 were served notices. They have not been able to find the whereabouts of 28 others.
"The selection of hundreds of bogus doctors in MP has threatened the very legitimacy of the selection process and the associated institutions," a senior CBI officer said.
There have been 170 cases filed by the 40-member SIT of the CBI team in the Vyapam scam.
