The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an absconding accused, Ramesh Shivhare, who was wanted in five cases related to Vyapam.
The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in a joint operation with the CBI on Wednesday arrested Shivhare, one of the main accused who was absconding in the Vyapam scam, from Kanpur.
CBI had taken over the investigation of said five FIRs which were earlier registered by the Madhya Pradesh Police on the directions of Supreme Court of India.
It was alleged that the arrested accused was in contact with another main accused and used to provide scorers to him in lieu of money. He used to arrange scorers from UP and Bihar. In one case related to MPPMT Exam- 2013, he provided around 15 scorers to another main accused for pairing with candidates, and in second case related to PMT 2008 and 2009, he arranged five impersonators. He has also allegedly played a pivotal role as middleman and racketeer in five CBI Cases and is suspected to have arranged around 40 scorers or impersonators from UP and Bihar. The accused was absconding since the investigation of Vyapam Scam Cases by MP Police and could not be arrested by MP Police for last around three years. A reward of `10,000 was also declared by STF, Bhopal.
The arrested accused is being produced today in the Court of ACMM, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)
A resident of Uttar Pradesh, Shivhare has been evading any questioning by authorities probing the case. His application for anticipatory bail was also turned down by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2014. “There is material to indicate involvement of applicant in the commission of the crime, for which the Investigating Officer has been insisting for attendance of the applicant for quite some time but in vain,” a bench of Chief Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Alok Aradhe had said.