MP high court quashes 4 FIRs against Vyapam case key accused Sudhir Sharma

Sudhir Sharma, a mining baron who had started out as a teacher, was accused of acting as a middleman to rig the recruitment exams conducted by Vyapam

Published on: May 19, 2025, 23:22:52 IST

By Shruti Tomar, Monika Pandey

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BHOPAL/JABALPUR: The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court has quashed all four FIRs registered against mining baron Sudhir Sharma in connection with the large-scale irregularities in admission to medical colleges and government recruitments more than a decade ago.

Sudhir Sharma was arrested by CBI in 2014 and was in jail till 2016 (FILE PHOTO)

A division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and justice Vivek Jain passed the order to cancel the four FIRs filed by CBI in the Vyapam case on Friday. The detailed order is awaited.

Sharma, a mining baron who had started out as a teacher, was close to former technical education minister late Laxmikant Sharma, and was also accused by a special task force and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of acting as a middleman to rig the recruitment exams conducted by Vyapam, now known as MP Employee Selection Board.

Sudhir Sharma was arrested in 2014 and spent two years in jail before getting out on bail in the four cases in June 2016.

CBI had submitted charge sheets against him accusing him of irregularities in sub-inspector recruitment exam 2012, police constable recruitment exam 2012, contract school teacher recruitment-2 exam 2011 and Forest Guard Recruitment Exam 2013.

Sharma, who appealed to the high court to quash the cases, said the CBI case did not allege any financial transaction between Sharma and any other person in the four cases. “It is not mentioned anywhere in the charge sheet and the excel sheet of CBI that the petitioner earned any kind of financial benefit. The cases registered have been registered on the basis of a memorandum of some witnesses. As there is no evidence of earning financial benefit, the registered FIR is eligible to be cancelled,” lawyer Kapil Sharma, who appeared for him. said.

“He was made an accused only on the basis of Section 27 memorandum and CDR, while there is no direct evidence against him,” the lawyer said, adding that no corroborative evidence was presented by the prosecution against the petitioner to support the charge.

He stressed that the prosecution could not make out a case against his client only on the basis of call detail records that revealed he was in regular contact with co-accused Vyapam officials who were his old acquaintances.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shruti Tomar
I have spent over a decade chronicling Madhya Pradesh’s political and social landscape, covering politics, investigative journalism, crime, human interest, and government policy, blending sharp insight with ground‑level depth. I have closely tracked three assembly elections, three Lok Sabha elections, leadership transitions in MP while exposing governance lapses, tender irregularities, and flawed policy rollouts. My reports have revealed gaps in the Cheetah project, irregularities in medical education, rigging in recruitment exams, and loopholes in policy implementation. In crime reporting, I have moved beyond FIRs to map systemic patterns — from organised crime networks and gender‑based violence to custodial accountability — balancing urgency with sensitivity. My journalism is defined by a commitment to human interest. I have profiled the marginalised Bancchda community, documented atrocities against tribal groups, and highlighted efforts to preserve their culture through heritage liquor and revival of spiritual practices. I have reported on farmers struggling with failed MSP promises, giving voice to those often reduced to statistics in policy files. Passionate about field reporting, I have reported on rampant sand mining in Chambal and Narmada, pharmaceutical companies supplying medicines under altered names, the dire condition of schools and colleges, the plight of commercial sex workers, and skewed sex ratios in specific districts. Beyond deadlines, and as HT’s state correspondent and assistant editor in Madhya Pradesh, I engage with ministers, farmers, students, and activists, believing the best policy stories begin with a single human voice. A postgraduate in Journalism and Mass Communication, I also hold a diploma in sports journalism.Read More

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