The scam involved 13 different exams conducted by Vyapam, for selection of medical students and state government employees (including food inspectors, transport constables, police personnel, school teachers, dairy supply officers and forest guards) where the final results were rigged.
[6] The scam involved a collusion of undeserving candidates, who bribed politicians and MPPEB officials through middlemen, to get high ranks in these entrance tests.
Subsequent interrogations and arrests uncovered the involvement of several politicians, bureaucrats, MPPEB officials, racket leaders, middlemen, candidates and their parents in the scam.
[12] Vyapam was entrusted with the responsibility of conducting large-scale competitive tests for admission to various professional courses and for recruitment to government jobs.
[15] A report by the Madhya Pradesh Local Fund Audit office for 2007-08 found several financial and administrative irregularities in MPPEB, including unauthorized disposal of application forms.
[16] Indore-based activist Anand Rai filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) requesting investigation into the scam.
[17] In 2009, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan set up a committee headed by the State Joint Director of Medical Education to probe the allegations.
Suspecting that these people were called in to impersonate others or to help candidates cheat by sitting adjacent to them, MPPEB asked them to explain their reasons for re-taking the exams.
MPPEB also started using biometric technology: thumb impressions and photographs of all the persons appearing for the exam were taken to be matched during the post-results counselling.
The candidates, mostly from rich families, had been impersonated by practicing doctors and talented medical students, some of whom had come from neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
[22] Based on information collected during the interrogation of these 20 impersonators, Indore police found out that an organized racket headed by Jagdish Sagar was involved in the scam.
After the arrests and the revelation, Dr. Anand Rai submitted a complaint to the local Superintendent of Police (economic offence wing), seeking a detailed investigation.
For Pre-PG Test of 2012, MPPEB's former examination controller Dr Pankaj Trivedi and its system analyst Nitin Mahindra provided model answer keys to candidates through photocopies.
On 15 June, the STF arrested the state's former technical education minister and BJP leader Laxmikant Sharma for his alleged involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam.
[30] In September 2014, the STF revealed that Jagdish Sagar's racket had also rigged the entrance exams for recruitment in SBI and other nationalized banks.
Several activists and politicians, including members of the major opposition Indian National Congress party, demanded a CBI probe in the scam under the supervision of the Supreme Court of India.
[32] Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan did not entertain the suggestion of a CBI inquiry to the probe initially.
[34] The SIT is a three-member team chaired by Justice Chandresh Bhushan, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
[35] On 7 July 2015, after controversy about increasing number of allegedly suspicious deaths, Chouhan informed media that he will write to High Court of Madhya Pradesh requesting to order a CBI probe into the scam.
[36] On the same day, the opposition National Congress Party requested for resignation of Chouhan to allow fair probe into the scam.
On 9 July 2015, the Attorney General for India told Supreme Court that State of Madhya Pradesh had no objection whatsoever for transferring the investigation to the CBI, upon which the Supreme Court ordered to transfer the 'criminal cases related to the scam and also the cases related to deaths allegedly linked with scam to the CBI, country's premier investigating agency.
These included the gangs led by Dr. Jagdish Sagar, Dr. Sanjeev Shilpakar and Santosh Gupta, who were described as "kingpins" of the PMT scam.
The Governor petitioned the High Court arguing that no criminal proceedings could be initiated against him, as the Constitution of India grants him immunity while he is in office.
[85] The CBI was set to investigate the Vyapam scam and more than 30 deaths allegedly linked to the job recruitment scandal, according to a ruling by the Supreme Court on 9 July 2015.
He alleged that the investigating agencies had tampered with the contents of the Excel sheet recovered from hard disk of the scam accused Nitin Mohindra's computer.
He stated that only 228 out of 350,000 appointments made during his tenure had been affected by the recruitment scam, and unlike previous governments, he had conducted a thorough probe.
In 2015, the Special Task Force (STF) submitted a list to Jabalpur High Court, naming 23 people who are believed to have died "unnatural death".
[92] The State Government dismissed the allegations, arguing that Vyapam conducts very large-scale examinations and thousands of people are admitted or recruited through these exams every year.
[97] Other accused declared dead in SIT's report include the following:[96][98] The mysterious deaths of people linked to Vyapam scam triggered dark humour on various social media platforms across India.
Their actions constitute acts of deceit...National character, in our considered view, cannot be sacrificed for benefits - individual or societal...If we desire to build a nation on the touchstone of ethics and character, and if our determined goal is to build a nation where only rule of law prevails, then we cannot accept the claim of the appellants (students) for suggested societal gains (by allowing them to keep the degrees on the condition of doing social service free of cost for some years)..We have no difficulty in concluding in favour of rule of law... Fraud cannot be allowed to trounce, on the stratagem of public good.