Vyapam 'mastermind' nabbed in UP

One of the suspected masterminds in the 'Vyapam' (Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board) scam Ramesh Shivhare was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur town late on Tuesday night.

Shivhare, who had been absconding for the past 3 years and carried a reward of Rs 10,000 was nabbed from a house in Kalyanpur locality in Kanpur by a joint team of the CBI and the UP Special Task Force (STF), police sources here said on Wednesday.

Sources said that Shivhare, who is the husband of former chairman of Mahoba Nagar Panchayat Anshu Shivhare, used to run a coaching centre at Kakadeo locality in Kanpur.

After his coaching centre was closed owing to dearth of students, Shivhare and a friend of his formed a gang of solvers. “The gang used to contact the students preparing for competitive examinations to get entrance into medical and engineering colleges as well as employment... they then used the solvers to crack the examinations in exchange for money,” the police officials said.

The Vyapam scam, which was unearthed in 2013, has witnessed arrest of hundreds of people, including politicians, doctors, medicos and others. Many of the accused have died under suspicious circumstances.