Vyapam scam: MP HC quashes four FIRs registered against former CRISP chief

Jabalpur, May 19 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday quashed all four FIRs registered against Sudhir Sharma, former chairman of Bhopal-based Centre for Research and Industrial Staff Performance (CRISP), in the Vyapam case.

The Vyapam scam refers to large scale irregularities in admission to medical colleges and government recruitments under earlier BJP governments in the state.

A SIT formed to investigate the Vyapam scam registered a case against Sharma, former chairman of CRISP who also held various posts in Sangh, Vidyarthi Parishad and Vigyan Bharti.

After this, the investigation of the Vyapam scam was handed over to the CBI, which registered a case against him for alleged irregularities in Sub Inspector Recruitment Examination 2012, Police Constable Recruitment Examination 2012, Contract School Teacher Recruitment Group II Examination 2011 and Forest Guard Recruitment Examination 2013.

The Central Bureau of Investigation registered four cases against Sharma and filed a chargesheet in court, after which he approached the HC.

The division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain's, while hearing the petitions jointly, issued orders to cancel all the four FIRs. The detailed order is awaited.

His advocate Kapil Sharma told the division bench that in all the four cases, no evidence has been found of any financial transaction between the petitioner and any person.

It is not mentioned anywhere in the chargesheet presented by CBI that the petitioner has made any kind of financial benefit, he said.

"As there is no evidence found of getting financial benefit, the petitioner could not be made an accused in the case. Therefore, the FIR registered is worthy of cancellation," he told the court.

The division bench has issued orders to cancel the FIR in all four cases due to lack of evidence in the matter, he added. PTI COR MAS BNM