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Bail plea of three accused in MPSC scam rejected

A special court in Mumbai on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Sunil Daspute, Manisha Nichat and Pramod Kadam, co-accused in the multi-crore Maharashtra Public Service Commission answer paper scam, on the ground that there was sufficient evidence against them.

Designated judge P N Deshmukh, rejecting their bail plea, observed that there is a prima facie case against the accused.

He also considered the submission of prosecutor R V Kini that if granted bail the trio may tamper with evidence by contacting witnesses.

Other accused in custody are former chairman of MPSC P D Vani, ministerial aide Avinash Sanas, Sub-Inspector Sunil Patil, computer engineer Farooq Kadge, MPSC canteen waiter Atmaram Karge, controller of examination Sudhakar Sarode, police Inspector Baban Kadam, an agent Mohammed Kalim, Mantralaya employee Eknath Vezere, suspended deputy municipal commissioner of Thane Vishwanath Kelkar, constable Hukumsingh Rajsingh Bhati, Gopal Babulal Jain and Padmakar Babulal.

Earlier the Bombay high court had granted bail to prime accused and former MPSC chairman, S D Karnik.

The accused have been charged with offences under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, section 465, section 466, section 467, section 379, section 457, section 120-b, and section 34.

The prosecution in its case stated that the accused had replaced answer sheets of 398 students who wrote the 1999 MPSC examinations for the posts of sub-inspectors of police, sales tax officers and Mantralaya assistants. Each candidate had allegedly paid Rs 300,000 to 500,000 for the favour.

PTI

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