INDORE: In its quest to gather sufficient evidence to prosecute the 25-odd high profile accused in money laundering case pertaining to the multi-crore MP Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam, Enforcement Directorate officials quizzed key MPPMT scam accused Jagdish Sagar on Tuesday.

Indore-based Sagar, who was the first big fish to be arrested in the MPPMT scam in July 2013 for operating an inter-state MPPMT impersonation racket and is currently lodged at Bhopal Jail was brought to Indore amid tight security in the afternoon.

Sagar's arrival at the ED office in Indore was followed by his marathon grilling by officials for nearly seven hours.

"Sagar's questioning started at around 12.30 pm but for first couple of hours he was non-cooperative. When we confronted him with evidence against him, he started cooperating. Subsequently, he revealed a lot of information, not only about his involvement in the MPPMT scam from 2010-11 but also the trail of the money earned by him and others through the scam," an ED official confided to TOI.

The grilling, which ended at around 7.30 pm, would certainly aid investigations and strengthen the available evidence against the 25-odd MPPEB scam accused against whom the ED had filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR) under Prevention of Money Laundering Act in March 2014, the official added.

The MPPMT scam had come to light in July 2013 with the busting of the inter-state racket run by Sagar, a community medicine specialist in Indore. Sagar's arrest had also revealed plethora of movable and immovable assets worth several crore rupees, reportedly acquired by him in Indore, Dewas, Gwalior and other parts of MP.

Sagar's grilling came a day after another MPPMT scam accused Tarang Sharma was questioned by the ED officials in Indore on Monday. The Bhopal-based Sharma was the key link between MPPEB officials and inter-state MPPMT racket operators Sudhir Rai and Santosh Gupta.

Two more MPPEB scam accused, including former MPPEB examination controller Dr Pankaj Trivedi and Nitin Mohindra, the former principal system analyst of the professional examination board, have also been grilled by the ED for tracking the trail of money earned by them through the scam.

The ED officials will question another key accused in the case, general manager of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS-Indore), Pradeep Raghuvanshi, on Wednesday. Raghuvanshi is in jail at present.

