The Special Judge, Vyapam Cases, Bhopal has sentenced Rakesh Patel and Tarun Usare, both candidates for posts of Police Assistant Sub-Inspector (LDC) and Subedar (Stenographer) examination–2013, to undergo seven years Rigorous Imprisonment with fines ranging from Rs 1,000 to three thousand under relevant Sections of IPC.

CBI had registered a case on the orders dated July 09, 2015 of Supreme Court of India and taken over the investigation from Madhya Pradesh Police earlier registered on the allegations of criminal conspiracy in the theft of and manipulation in OMR answer sheets in connection with the examination for posts of Assistant Sub-Inspector (LDC) of Police and Subedar (Stenographer) conducted by Vyapam on June 09, 2013.

It was further alleged that when the envelopes containing the OMR answer sheets of the said examination were opened on June 15, 2013 in the computer section of Vyapam for scanning, the Vyapam officials detected that two OMR answer-sheets were missing from the respective envelopes. The fact of the missing OMR answer sheets was reported to The Controller of Examinations, whereafter a search was conducted and photocopies of these two OMR answer-sheets were found in a bag kept by the side of the security guard.

The said security guard disclosed that the bag belonged to an employee of Vyapam. It was further revealed that the OMR answer sheets were stolen by two junior employees in connivance with the security guard for the purpose of manipulating them and inflating the correct answer options on them, in lieu of monetary consideration from the candidates and their family members, ase filed.