The court emphasized the gravity of the accusations and the impact of the grant of anticipatory bail in cases affecting a large number of people, leading to the dismissal of the petitions for anticipatory bail.

HEMANT GUPTA, CJ.

1. This order shall dispose of all three petitions for grant of anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) being MCRC No.24600/2017, MCRC No.24605/2017 and MCRC No.24983/2017 filed on behalf of the petitioners – Dr. Divya Kishore Satpathi, Jai Narayan Chouksey and Dr. Ajay Goenka respectively, who apprehend their arrest in connection with Crime No. RC2172015A0025 (formerly STF Crime No.12/2013) registered with Police Station – Central Bureau of Investigation, Bhopal (M.P.) for the offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 201 read with 120-B of IPC; Section 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; Sections 43 read with 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000; and Sections 3-D (1) and (2) and 4 of the M.P. Recognised Examination Act, 1937 as enumerated in the charge-sheet though in the bail applications the offence mentioned is that under Sections 409, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC; Sections 65 and 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000; Sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sections 3-D (1) and (2) and 4 of the M.P. Recognised Examination Act, 1937.

2. Petitioner – Dr. Ajay Goenka is the Chairman of Chirayu Medical College, Bhopal whereas petitioner – Jai Narayan Chouksey is the Chairman of L.N. Medical College, Bhopal and petitioner – Dr. Divya Kishore Satpathi is said to be the In-charge of Admission Committee of L.N. Medical College, Bhopal. All three petitions arise out of the same crime number and almost on similar allegations.

3. As per the prosecution, the allegations are that the petitioners and other middleman encouraged bright students of the States other than State of Madhya Pradesh to appear in Pre-Medical Test 2012 (in short as “the PMT 2012”) even though some of these students were already admitted in MBBS course in some other colleges. The allegation is that the officials of M.P. Professional Examination Board (in short as “the VYAPAM”), in furtherance of criminal conspiracy between them and three racketeers, namely, Jagdish Sagar, Sanjeev Shilpkar and Santosh Gupta generated and allocated the roll numbers of bogie candidates in a manner so as to pair them with the roll numbers of engine candidates/solvers engaged by middleman and racketeers. These engine candidates had filled the application forms so as to get paired with the bogie candidates and to facilitate their selection by cheating/copying of the answers. The VYAPAM officials arranged seating pattern in the examination hall so as to enable the candidates to copy the answers from the scorers, who due to pairing of the roll numbers, used to sit next to the candidates. This pairing was termed as “engine-bogie pairing” whereas the scorer (engine) sitting ahead of the candidate (bogie) assisted the candidate for cheating through copying of the answers. This fraud has taken place in Indore, Bhopal and Shahdol in PMT2012. The Central Bureau of Investigation has sent 181 (38+123+20) engine candidates; 308 (153+138+17) bogie candidates; 25 (14+11) middleman/ racketeers, 46 invigilators; four VYAPAM officials and two officials of Directorate of Medical Education, to stand trial.

4. The allegation against the four private medical colleges i.e. Index Medical College, People’s Medical College, Chirayu Medical College and L.N. Medical College, is that engine candidates, who had obtained higher marks in examination were allotted private medical colleges during counselling but these students did not take actual admission and the colleges gave false information to the Director, Medical Education that these students have taken admission in their colleges. This was done to block the State quota seats by these fudged admissions. These students never reported to the college but they were given monetary benefits by the middleman for blocking the seats. Actual information/status was not disclosed to the