Vyapam cheating case: 5-yr jail for three

One-liner: A special CBI court has sentenced three men to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for five years for cheating a doctor of ₹13 lakh on the pretext of helping his son clear the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) in 2012.

What is Vyapam: The PMT was conducted by the MP Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or Vyapam. The court also imposed a fine of ₹8,000 on each of them.

Three held guilty: CBI court judge Sanjay Kumar Gupta found Sourav Kumar Singh of Bihar, Umesh Srivastava of Chhattisgarh, and Praveen Singh of Uttar Pradesh- all members of an inter-state gang- guilty under IPC sections.

• Special Public Prosecutor Ranjan Sharma said that the three faced 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of documents) and other counts of IPC
• He said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) produced 41 witnesses during the trial against the trio

Accused absconding: An absconding accused, Setu Raj of Bihar, has also been convicted and an arrest warrant has been issued against him.

Background: The Supreme Court in 2015 had directed the CBI to probe the massive scam in tests and recruitment conducted by Vyapam while hearing a clutch of petitions.

• This scam involved rigging professional and recruitment tests. The Vyapam was later renamed the MP Professional Examination Board