bhopal

Updated: Aug 11, 2018 21:55 IST

Ashish Chaturvedi, one of Vyapam scam whistle blowers and Gwalior based RTI activist, had to spend a night in Gwalior jail on Thursday as he refused to deposit a fine of Rs 200 imposed on him by a special court in Gwalior for not recording his statement in connection with an alleged fraudulent admission in the medical college at Gwalior, according to prosecution.

As per prosecution, the court ordered sending him to jail for 15 days. About an hour later, Ashish Chaturvedi relented and deposited the fine. The court too ordered his release but by the time the order was released he had been sent to the jail.

Ashish Chaturvedi was released from the jail on Friday after the court order was produced before the jail authorities.

Girish Sharma, additional district prosecution officer, Gwalior said, “The court has summoned Ashish Chaturvedi at least 16 times (in the past 4 years) for recording his statement as he is a complainant in the case but he has been avoiding doing the same. This is resulting in wastage of valuable time of the court and the case not being decided. That’s why the court imposed a fine on him.”

Ashish Chaturvedi is supposed to record his statement in the special court in a case related to his FIR he had lodged with Jhansi Road police station, Gwalior against one Rahul Yadav, authorities concerned of Gajraja Medical College, Gwalior and directorate of medical education (DME) in April 2014.

In the FIR Chaturvedi had alleged that Rahul Yadav had got admission to the medical college at Gwalior for pursuing MBBS course fraudulently in the year 2004 while concealing the fact that he had not passed the class 12 examination at that time. Also, he had cracked the PMT with the help of a scorer from Uttar Pradesh.

Ashish Chaturvedi said he was not recording his statement because the special investigation team (SIT) looking into the matter had made only Rahul Yadav an accused in its charge-sheet. He wanted the SIT to bring to book the other accused too who supported Rahul Yadav in concealing his documents and getting the admission.

He said, “If my statement is recorded and the case is decided without the other accused being booked this may give a benefit to the main accused who may say in the court that without the help of others how he could have rigged the PMT or got the admission.”

On the issue of fine he said he was not expecting the fine to be imposed on him and he didn’t have that much money at that moment. Till he arranged the money it was late and he had to go to jail.

(With input from Mahesh Shivhare in Gwalior)