Vyapam accused former Madhya Pradesh minister Lakshmikant Sharma, was released out of Bhopal Central Jail on Sunday after a court granted him bail.
Sharma was welcomed by his supporters, who waited with garlands outside the jail to give him the ‘hero welcome’ akin to sportspersons returning home after achieving international glory.
His release on bail was ordered by a district court in Bhopal on Saturday after the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court accepted his bail plea the previous day.
Sharma was arrested by a special task force on 6 June and had been languishing in jail since then. The STF investigated the Vyapam scam before it was handed over to the CBI following the Supreme Court’s intervention.
Cases were registered on basis of excel-sheet data coded ‘latest 2011’, retrieved from hard disk of Vyapam former chief system analyst. Three more cases were registered against him during further investigation by STF.
STF officials said data in excel sheet which was recovered from principal analyst Nitin Mohindra states Sharma recommended at least 15 candidates for recruitment as constables in 2012 and certain other evidence has been received so he was booked in the case.
Another Vyapam scam accused, former officer on special duty Dhanraj Yadav was released from jail on Saturday after he too got bail from court.
The Vyapam Scam involved the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, which holds exams for positions like medical officers, constables, teachers and auditors for government departments. The candidates allegedly bribed government officials to ensure that they made it to the list of those who cleared the test.