This document summarizes a high-profile exam scam in Madhya Pradesh, India involving the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam), the body that oversees entrance exams for medical students, constables, teachers, and other government jobs. Complaints of cheating emerged in the 2000s, with candidates paying bribes to pass exams without taking them. An investigation in 2011 found 114 candidates passed through impersonation. Further investigations in 2013 uncovered a massive rigging operation involving thousands of people over many years. As details emerged, many connected to the scam died under mysterious circumstances, with unofficial death tolls much higher than reported. The scam exposed major failures in oversight, transparency, and ethics within the exam

1. Divya Kothari
1600 NE 47th
Street
Seattle, WA 98105
kotharid@uw.edu
THE VYAPAM SCAM
This paper is about a high profile case embedded in the state of Madhya Pradesh in
central India, revolving around the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board
(“MPPEB/Board”) or Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (“Vyapam”), which is an autonomous and
self-financed body established by the State Government for conducting several entrance
examinations for positions such as medical students/officers, constables, teachers, forest guards,
and government departments1
. The issue surfaced when it was found that candidates were
colluding with middle-men to clear the tests by bribing, without taking the exam. From what
earlier seemed benign, things soon turned morbid when 44 people died mysteriously.
India has been grappling with the matter of corruption since years. It is one of the
country’s most pervasive problems, penetrating through the layers of every sector including
education. Irregularities had been reported since the mid-1990s, but the first FIR was registered
in 2000, though the issue soon died down. 7 years later, a report by the Madhya Pradesh Local
Fund Audit office (2007-08) stated that it had found several financial and administrative
irregularities in the functioning of the MPPEB, for instance - unauthorized disposal of
application forms2
. Suspicions soon arose that the application forms were destroyed on purpose
so that they could not be compared with exam admit cards and other records. In 2009, complaints
re-surfaced, this time in Pre-Medical Test (“PMT”)3
. An activist in Indore,4
Anand Rai filed
1
“Vyapam Scam” Wikipedia. Accessed on 6th
Feb 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyapam_scam
2
Mishra, S. “Uncovering Vyapam: Does the buck really stop with the BJP and Chouhan” The News Minute. 6th
July 2015.
Accessed 6th
Feb 2016 from: http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/uncovering-vyapam-does-buck-really-stop-bjp-and-
chouhan-31892
3
Press Trust of India. “MP govt accuses Vyapam scam whistleblower of political affiliation” The Indian Express. 15th
March
2015. Accessed on 7th
Feb 2016 from: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/mp-govt-accuses-vyapam-scam-
whistleblower-of-political-affiliation/

2. a Public Interest Litigation (“PIL”) requesting investigation into the scam5
. The Chief Minister
of Madhya Pradesh (“MP”) Shivraj Singh Chouhan instructed that a committee headed by the
State Joint-Director of Medical Education be set up to look into the veracity of these allegations6
.
In November 2011, the committee submitted its report to the government, stating that of the 145
suspected candidates, 114 had cleared the exam by impersonation. Most of these candidates,
were from rich backgrounds and were impersonated by practicing doctors and medical students
that were top scorers and in need of money or some sort of cash equivalent. In fact, it was found
that some of these impersonators were even brought in from neighboring states of Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar. These middle men charged each candidate anywhere between ₹1-4 million.
Though not in much depth, but the report also mentioned the possibility of government officials
being involved in the scam.7
By then, it was clear that these cases were part of a much bigger
organized ring and in 2013, the matter finally came to light.
In July 2013, morning of the PMT exam, at the tip of a whistle-blower, a team of police-
men raided various motels in and on the outskirts of Indore and arrested 20 impersonators. Based
on their interrogation the Indore police discovered the kingpin of this huge impersonation ring
was. His arrest in turn, led to capturing Pankaj Trivedi, the examination controller of the
Professional Examination Board (“PEB”) in September 2013. Trivedi’s arrest opened a can of
worms. Exposing the monstrousness of the racket, Pankaj revealed that it was not confined to the
PMT exam alone; it involved rigging a number of recruitment exams conducted by the Board for
4
The largest city in MP, 200 kilometers from Bhopal which is the capital of the State
5
“Tests of your Patience” The Outlook. 1st
June 2015. Accessed on 7th
Feb 2016 from: http://www.outlookindia.com/article/tests-
of-your-patience/294386
6
Kartikeya, C. “42 dead: Why is Shivraj Chouhan not facing more heat in the Vyapam scam?” Catch News. 30th
June 2015.
Accessed on 7th
Feb 2016 from: http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/42-dead-why-is-shivraj-chouhan-not-facing-more-heat-
in-the-vyapam-scam-1435607494.html
7
Lall, L. “100 fake doctors? Madhya Pradesh hit by Munnabhai scam” The Times of India. 29th Dec 2011. Accessed on 7th
February 2016 from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/100-fake-doctors-MP-hit-by-Munnabhai-
scam/articleshow/11285266.cms

3. the past several years. Pankaj named some of the key people involved and the scam unraveled at
breakneck speed leading the law enforcers to other figureheads – officers on special duty to the
governor and chief minister, Indian Administrative Service officers, Deputy Commissioner,
Inspector/Deputy Inspector General, police officers and many other public servants.8
More than
2000 people some way or the other, connected with the sham were taken into custody, majority
of them being students.
Initially trying to keep the matter under wraps, the efforts soon waned as the toll of
‘unnatural deaths’ kept on increasing and the State was forced to order the constitution of a
Special Task Force (“STF”). The official figure as reported by the State Government stands at 23
deaths, however unofficially the number claimed is 449
. Indore actually happens to be my
hometown, and I remember vividly, waking up each morning to find headlines flashing at the
front page of all newspapers about the mysterious death of a person who ‘co-incidentally’
happened to be connected with this scam. Another indirect yet grave result of this scam is that
the fake candidates could be potential threats to the remaining populace of the country. Imagine
if your doctor, became a doctor just by virtue of having enough wealth to buy a degree.
The above-stated also represent the biggest control failures when it comes to people. First
of all, considering an institution of this scale and with so many organizations under its garb, the
Board was being run with the power concentrated in a mere handful of individuals. This will
become more prominent as you go on to read about the internal rigging control mechanisms.
Secondly, many of these post-holders were put to power by mere virtue of having personal
relations or financial leverage. Thus if bypassing the due process of law is made so easy, it will
inevitably lead to the breakdown of administrative machinery and in effect, the society. Thirdly,
8
Sethi, A. “The mystery of India’s deadly exam scam” The Guardian. 17 Dec 2015. Accessed 6th
Feb 2015, from:
http://thewire.in/2015/07/01/vyapam-how-a-munnabhai-style-exam-scam-turned-into-a-macabre-thriller-5249/
9
View Appendix at the end

4. the bureaucrats have over the years set such a fearful tone at the top, not allowing the STF to
identify and the media to publish - the actual causes of death for most of the victims. Fourthly,
due to the lack of initiative by people and discouraging attitude by the police this racket was
buried for years. Finally, had the State Government taken action and proper enforcement
measures at the right time, many of these deaths could have been prevented. The fact that an STF
was commissioned instead of the Central Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) and that too much
later, itself raises many eyebrows.
As to the systemic and processes risks, apart from the impersonation tactic stated above,
there were two more schemes developed. One was the ‘engine-bogie’ system. Here, the seating
plans were devised as such, that a top-scorer would sit between two poor students, supplying
them with answers. Sometimes the invigilators were told to turn a blind eye, to facilitate this
process of cheating. The second strategy was far more ingenious. In this, the students paying to
clear their exam were asked to intentionally leave their answer-sheet blank, so that they could be
randomly assigned marks and on the pretense of having filed an RTI application, obtain this
blank answer-sheet and enter the right answers before getting caught. On some occasions if the
student marked answers incorrectly, correction-glue was used to remove and re-enter the right
options. A glaring control failure here is the lack of proper supervision (both technical, and in-
person) and a strict hierarchy-based approval process for each step, right from distributing
answer-sheets to collecting, vetting, grading, re-checking and releasing them.
Without a proper system of checks and balances, a corruption case can go haywire. The sad
truth is that the hapless stakeholders, in this case deserving candidates and meritorious students,
are the ones to suffer. In order to prevent such a scam from repeating itself, I would like to
propose the following plan of action:

5.  Similar to the four levels of risk management proposed for the National Transportation
Board, based on the importance of risk, develop a dynamic movement between the Enterprise
(MPPEB), Program (Department – Medical, Engineering, etc.), Project (Examination) and
Activity (Conducting the examination). Each level has a hierarchy based approval check-
point and resorts to periodic reporting to facilitate effective communication10
.
 Increase transparency and accountability by subjecting itself to regular audits. This should
also be inbuilt with a two-way feedback mechanism to prevent the higher-ups from
controlling the subordinates all the time.
 As University of Washington Professor Annie Searle puts it “people are at the heart of
operational risk management, whether policies and programs are in effect or not.”11
Corruption scandals especially, boil down to the issue of ethical misconduct. As Searle
suggests, whether by encouraging employees to do the ‘right’ thing, creating a code of
organizational values or developing a plan to combat fraud or unethical behavior, it is imperative
to “create a climate for your team to ensure that members are not afraid to give you bad news.”12
In the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party power at the center, promising to
root out corruption and propogating this slogan - ‘Acche Din Aane Waale Hain’ (The good days
are coming soon). Until this murky, multi-faceted and manipulative exam scam concludes,
clearly the people are yet to see those good days as promised by the BJP. As India witnesses this
a suspense/thriller as if right out of a movie, the scary part is, that this episode hasn’t ended yet.
10 Gordon Proctor & Associates, The StarIsis Corporation & Jeff Roorda and Associates, Inc. “Managing Risk across the
Enterprise: Quick Guide for State Departments of Transportation” Transportation Research Board of the National Academies
21st
May 2015. Accessed 8th
Feb 2016.
11
Searle, A. "Ethical Misconduct: Is It Your Greatest Risk? November 2012. Accessed 8th
Feb, 2016 from:
http://anniesearle.com/web-services/Documents/Articles/AnnieSearle_TheRiskUniverse_Ethicalmisconduct-
Isityourbiggestrisk_November2012.pdf
12
Supra

6. APPENDIX13
13
Tiwari, D. “The Death Test” The Week. 19th
July 2015. Accessed on 8th
Feb 2016 from:
http://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/the-death-test.html