Process started to declare five accused as proclaimed offenders

A local court has started proceedings to declare Gugnani brothers, the main accused in running a racket in the name of PTU distance education programme, as proclaimed offenders.

The move comes after the police submitted in court that the accused Ajesh Gugnani, Sanjeev Gugnani, Anju Gugnani w/o Ajesh Gugnani, Sankhia Mishra - partner in their firm, and Akhilesh Semwal, project manager, Matrix Infosys, had been avoiding service of arrest warrants, delaying the submission of a challan.

PTU authorities had found the Gugnani brothers guilty of charging more than the prescribed fee from both the students as well as the learning centres.

The Gugnanis have moved the supreme court for bail.

In an order passed by additional chief judicial magistrate JS Marok, the court has directed Ajesh Gugnani, Sanjeev Gugnani, Anju Gugnani, Sankhia Mishra and Akhilesh Semwal, to appear before the court on May 30, in connection with the charges and questions raised in regards with the scam.

PTU vice-chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora, while addressing the media on October 26, 2012, had alleged that Gugnani brothers were running an examination mafia by facilitating malpractices during examinations by collecting money from students appearing in the exams, which had no mention in the FIR registered by Kapurthala police after nearly one month of detailed enquiry.

The Gugnani brothers, through their companies, had been controlling the administration of PTU learning centres in 14 states across the country.

The Gugnani brothers, Rama Gugnani w/o Sanjeev Gugnani and two other employees of the Matrix Infosys Gautam Banerjee and Sabal Kanta, were booked by Kapurthala police on October 23, 2012, under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the IPC on a complaint filed by PTU registrar HS Bains.