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This story is from January 19, 2019

Vyapam: CBI clears 'Gondia angle' from 2012-Transport Constable Recruitment scam

The CBI on Saturday gave a clean chit to Shivraj Singh Chouhan's wife Sadhna, while submitting a chargesheet before a special court in Bhopal against 18 accused in the transport constable recruitment scam. The CBI told the court that it looked into the allegations but did not find any illegality, irregularity, or commission of any offence.
Vyapam: CBI clears 'Gondia angle' from 2012-Transport Constable Recruitment scam
BHOPAL: CBI submitted on Saturday that nothing significant was found in allegations related to illegal selection of candidates from Gondia district of Maharashtra while submitting charge-sheet against 26 people in connection with the sensational '2012-Transport Constable Recruitment scam'.
Moreover, former BJP minister Laxmikant Sharma and 10 others were let off from this case following ‘lack of evidence’.

List of those charge-sheeted include 19 candidates besides ex-Vyapam officials, middlemen and impersonators. Two accused died during investigations.
CBI had registered FIR in this case on July 22, 2015 naming former higher education minister of state Laxmikant Sharma, his close aide Om Prakash Shukla and several others.
This Vyapam scam case had become sensational after Congress made allegations in 2014 that over dozen candidates, who figured in merit list of the written exam, were from Gondia (Maharashtra) – the native place of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife and were recruited by the state transport department following directions from the CM house.
In the 3000-page charge-sheet was submitted before CBI’s special judge — Suresh Singh – in Bhopal CBI said that their investigations did not find any ‘illegality’ in allegations pertaining to ‘Gondia candidates’. Their finding however doesn’t specify if at all there were any candidates from Gondia.

It reads, “Other than the allegations stated above, some allegations mentioned in various complaints pertaining to illegal enhancement of number of posts of transport constables, irregularities in the selection of candidates for the post of transport constables from the merit & waiting lists and allegations related to illegal selection of candidates from Gondia district of Maharashtra under political influence, were also investigated which did not reveal any illegality, irregularity or commission of any offence”
CBI also noted that “reports from CFS Hyderabad, with respect to digital files are awaited on the questionnaire sent by CBI. The same shall be filed before this court as and when received,”.
Agency informed court that its investigations did not find any evidence to establish role of Laxmikant Sharma and 10 others in the selection of 18 candidates who were selected illegally by way of tampering in their OMR answer sheets and electronic data, and as such, were not recommended for prosecution. Madhya Pradesh STF, that was first to investigate this case had named Sharma as ‘middleman’.
Examination for recruitment of transport constables was held on August 12, 2008, for 332 posts and 56,455 candidates appeared for it. Results were declared on September 1, 2012.
Initial FIR into this 'sensitive' scam was registered on basis of report by handwriting experts at police headquarters. Around 40 answer-sheets were sent for verification. The report was 'positive' in 34 cases. Mismatch was detected in handwriting in application forms and answer-sheets. False answers were covered with whiteners and correct ones were marked, sources said. It is suspected that results of more than 100 candidates were rigged.
CBI team had completed its investigations into the transport constable recruitment examination- 2012 scam during the assembly elections. A report was sent to the CBI headquarters in New Delhi for approval to submit a charge-sheet in this case, said sources.
Those charge-sheeted include – Manoj Koul, Prashant Singh Yadav, Brijesh Mishra, Sandeep Tiwari, Dharmendra Thakur, Amit Sharma, Anurag Thakur, Yusuf Khan, Manmohan Singh Raghuvanshi, Hemant Raghuvanshi, Dinesh Raghuvanshi, Deepak Upadhyay, Mayank Awasthi, Pankaj Shukla, Abhijit Singh Pawar, Shahid Sheikh, Sahab Bahadur Singh Baghel, Rohit Yadav, and Vyapam officials Nitin Mohindra, Chandrakant Mishra. STF had charge-sheeted some of the accused earlier.
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