Vyapam accused had funneled money from educational institutes to minister: I-T report

NEW DELHI: Investigators who raided Madhya Pradesh mining baron Dr Sudhir Sharma's companies in 2013 stumbled upon huge cash transactions between promoters of a few educational institutions and Sharma, but they couldn't find a reason for it.
However, as the Vyapam scam unravels amid mysterious deaths and Sharma turns out be a key figure behind the scandal, it has come to light that he was an intermediary between educational institutions and the then Madhya Pradesh education minister Laxmikant Sharma, who is now in jail in connection with the scam.
On Friday, TOI had reported that income tax authorities had found evidence of several political leaders, such as RSS leader Suresh Soni, former president of Madhya Pradesh BJP Prabhat Jha, Congress MLA Veer Singh Bhuria and many civil servant had taken various favours including cash and flight tickets from Sharma.
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All you should know about Vyapam scam
In the course of their investigations, they also stumbled upon huge cash transactions between promoters of some educational institutions in Madhya Pradesh and Sharma. In their report prepared in 2013, investigators wondered why a person running institutions for technical education would make cash payments on a regular basis to Sharma, a major portion of which was passed on to the minister.
"Whether he is giving money himself or is collecting money from others and then passing it on needs to be investigated," the report said. "Due to multiplicity of issues involved and paucity of time, no enquiry from this angle could be made. It is therefore suggested that the assessment officer may make deep enquiries on this issue, ascertain the ultimate beneficiary, seek their explanation and take further necessary action accordingly," it added.
The investigators found that in just seven months, between September 2011 and March 2012, owners of two educational institutions handed over Rs 78.50 lakh in cash to Sharma. "The reason why these persons are giving cash to Sudhir Sharma is not clear but it prima facie represents their undisclosed income," the I-T report said.
It pointed out that one of the persons making frequent cash payments to Sharma was Sanjeev Agrawal, owner of Sagar group of educational institutions. Another person who made such payments was the owner of Truba group of educational institutions, the report said.
"If we see the immediate utilization of funds received from them, it is seen that on three occasions, cash was received from Sanjeev Agrawal and immediately handed over to Mohar Singh, who is attached as a personal staff with minister Laxmikant Sharma," the report said.
On January 2, 2012, Agrawal handed over Rs 5 lakh, and on the same day Sharma handed over Rs 5 lakh to Mohar Singh. On January 10, 2012, Rs 15 lakh was received by Sharma from Agrawal, and Rs 10 lakh was handed over to Mohar Singh.