Agency denies tampering with electronic evidence

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed a charge sheet in the Vyapam admission scam case and rejected allegations that computer hard discs seized from an accused purportedly carrying reference of the letters “CM” have been tampered with.

The findings of the CBI will come as a major relief for Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who faces Assembly elections next year.

The agency in its charge sheet filed before a special CBI court said the forensic analysis of the hard disc drives seized from Nitin Mohindra, an official at Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, by the Madhya Pradesh Police has shown that no files having letters “CM” were stored in them.

The agency rejected allegations of tampering with the hard disc, which was being considered as the crucial piece of evidence in the multi-crore recruitment scam levelled by Congress leader Digvijay Singh and whistle blower Prashant Pandey.

It said Mr. Pandey had also submitted two pen drives — to the Delhi High Court and the CBI — carrying excel sheets to buttress his claim that hard disc drives seized by Indore Police in 2013 were tampered to remove 48 instances of the letters “CM” from the records.

The files carried in the pen drives were altered subsequently, the charge sheet said.

The hard disc was seized by Indore police and later handed over to the CBI for forensic examination in 2015 following a Supreme Court order in this regard, the sources said.

The Vyapam case refers to massive irregularities in recruitment for various Madhya Pradesh government jobs.

The CBI has registered multiple FIRs to investigate the case.