LA TIMES: Six years after Rai first complained to police that state medical school exams were being leaked, the extent of the cheating scandal in Madhya Pradesh has become outrageously clear. Whistle-blowers say that over nearly a decade, tens of millions of dollars exchanged hands to rig the tests that help determine university slots and civil service jobs, allegedly with the complicity of senior politicians in one of India’s most populous states.
Colluding with the state examination board, known by the Hindi acronym Vyapam, rival test-fixing gangs helped at least 2,000 students con their way into coveted medical colleges and many more land police and other government posts, authorities say.
More than 1,800 people have been arrested — mostly suspected cheaters, middlemen and testing administrators — and hundreds more are on the run.
The scandal, colossal even by India’s notorious standards for graft, has grown more explosive in recent weeks with the sudden deaths of several people reportedly connected to the case.
Investigators said last month that 23 people named in the scandal had suffered “unnatural deaths” since 2009, most commonly in road accidents.
