Nine Vyapam courts shut after nod by Madhya Pradesh HC

New Delhi: Nine special CBI courts hearing Vyapam scam-related cases have been closed by the Madhya Pradesh high court at the request of the probe agency.

The HC had set up 22 special courts for hearing Vyapam scam-related cases. It had closed four of them earlier. Of the remaining 18, nine were in Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore. The districts of Rewa, Damoh, Sagar, Balaghat, Morena, Chattarpur, Guna, Bhind and Khand-wa have one court each. The courts in these nine districts will now be closed at the request of the CBI. Their 38 cases will be brought to the special Vyapam courts in Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore, sources said.

Sources added that the agency had made the request in this regard to the Madhya Pradesh HC which allowed the plea through an order on September 11. The special CBI courts in Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore have necessary infrastructure and human resources that can monitor the ongoing trials, they added. The Vyapam court in Bhopal has three special judges and one special magistrate, Gwalior has two special judges and one special magistrate.

“It will not impact the ongoing trials. These nine courts were hearing 38 of the total 154 cases in which most of the witnesses do not belong to those districts. Hence, there will be no impact of moving these cases to the special courts in Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore and Gwalior,” sources said. These cities have full-fledged legal teams and officials like special prosecutors, pairavi officers among others can ensure better monitoring of the cases, they added. CBI sources said the special Vyapam courts were notified by the high court keeping in view that the state police will be probing the matter. This was done before the CBI took over the investigation in the cases on the orders of the Supreme Court on July 24, 2015.

The scam is related to manipulation in the selection process for government colleges and jobs conducted by the Madhya Pradesh professional examination board or Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam). It involved the impersonation of candidates, rampant copying, blank answer sheets and fake marks.