Sex-for-marks scandal: MP CM to send report

BHOPAL: Two months after the sex-for-marks scandal in the Netaji Subhash Chandra Medical College in Jabalpur surfaced, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would meet a delegation from a student body that exposed the scandal and send a recommendation to Governor Rameshwar Thakur.
"We want a criminal case registered against vice-chancellor Ram Rajesh Mishra,"said Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad regional organisational secretary Vishnu Dutt Sharma.The ABVP is demanding the immediate removal of the VC.
A three-member committee submitted a report to the state government on May 14 confirming that girl students who failed in examinations were asked for sexual favours in order to get their marks increased.
On Tuesday, the state crime branch arrested the former registrar of the Rani Durgavati University Vijay Sharma and three others in connection with the sex scandal. Sharma is presently the registrar of the ABS University in Rewa. All four were presented before the court of the first class judicial magistrate Asish Shrivastava and remanded to judicial custody for ten days.
The main accused is a builder-contractor Raju Khan and two senior officials of the Rani Durgavati University, deputy registrar Ravindra Kakodia and examination controller SS Rana. All of them are in police custody since early April. One lady accounts officer of the University has been transferred.
Dutt said: "The scam was based on re-evaluation of examination papers. Girl students who failed the examinations were told to compromise sexually in order to get their marks increased. The re-evaluation takes place under the direct supervision of the vice-chancellor. He should be held responsible for the exploitation of the girl students. How could he have been ignorant about girl students of his medical college being sexually exploited before they got their MBBS degrees?"
The ABVP claimed that Ram Rajesh Mishra was involved in another controversy when he was the vice-chancellor of Ujjain University. "There it was a job appointments scam. People who did not even appear before the selection committee for the interviews were given jobs. He had to submit his resignation two years ago after that scam came to light," Dutt said.
"Main accused Raju Khan was paid Rs 55 lakh for the renovation of a university hostel when the tender was for Rs 35 lakh. Why did the vice-chancellor pay Khan Rs 20 lakh more?"
In the last week of March, a first year student of the medical college registered a complaint that a senior student Prerna Atwal had told her that she failed in two papers and would not be promoted to second year. However, if the girl agreed to compromise sexually, her marks would be increased during re-evaluation. When matters reached the police, three other girl students gave their statements supporting the first year student's claim. Police seized all documents of re-evaluation and found that the sex scandal was not a new phenomenon. Girl students were taken to local hotels at night.