This Article is From Aug 09, 2015

Arrested In Vyapam Scam, Their Lives Will Never Be the Same Again

Om Singh Rawat's father was arrested in the Vyapam scam but his family doesn't know the charges framed against him.

Alirajpur: For more than a year, 20-year-old Sadhna and 25-year old Pradeep have been sitting at home after clearing medical entrance examinations because they were arrested in the Vyapam scam by the police.

The siblings were among the around 1,300 candidates and parents arrested by the Special Task Force, which was probing the case of irregularities in recruitments for various government jobs by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, or Vyapam, before it was handed to the CBI this year.

Their father, Thavar Singh Kamaliya breaks down as he recollects how his two children spent three days in jail before they were bailed out last year.

The STF alleged they used illegal means to clear the test and took away all their documents from their home in Jhabua. Sadhna and Pradeep have been at home since.

Mr Kamaliya, a land record officer, says he was arrested later because his mobile number appeared in the call records of one of the middleman accused in the scam. After spending four days in jail he has been suspended and out of work since June.

Mr Kamaliya told NDTV, "My children were treated like criminals. Police held my daughter by her hair. I feel at times that I should end my life. I am suspended. How do I take care of my family?"

A hundred kilometres away in Alirajpur, 60-year-old Kalu Singh Rawat was taken away by STF in February and has since been in Indore district jail. He was picked up soon after his son Jagat, who was studying in Indore, was arrested.

While Jagat got bail after spending eight months in jail, his father is still locked up. His family does not know the charges brought against him and they are worried as he wasn't keeping well.

Mr Rawat's son Om Singh Rawat says, "He has problems with his appendix and also in the knee. We don't know why he is in jail. The STF does not tell us anything."
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