UDAYARAVI Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are before this Court seeking for quashing of the charge sheet against the petitioners who are accused Nos.12 and 14 therein and consequently quashing of the Criminal proceedings pending on the file of the Prl. District and Sessions Court, Bellary in Spl.C.No.126/2012 (in Crime No.56/2011 of Cowlbazaar P.S.) for the offences punishable under Section 417 , 41 , 420 , 465 , 468 , 409 , 109 , 114 , 161 of IPC and Sections 117, 118, 119, 120, 121 and 138 of Karnataka Education Act, 1983 ('Act' for short) and under Section 13(1)(c) , 13(1)(d) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988.

(2.) The case of the prosecution as stated in the charge sheet is that every year Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) conducts entrance exam for Post Graduation studies in different disciplines of medical and dental sciences, which examination is held at different centres, one such centre in the year 2011 was designated to be that of Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS).

(3.) It is the case of the prosecution that accused No.1 Dr.Vinaya Prasanna was serving in the teaching line in VIMS had allegedly conspired with others to adopt malpractices to help certain candidates to get better results. On the date of examination, i.e. 30.01.2011 accused No.1 illegally opened the question paper in his custody, took photographs of the question paper using his digital camera, sent the digital camera through accused No.1 to accused No.17, accused No.27 who was allegedly a computer operator took a print out of the question paper from the digital camera by connecting it to the computer present in the residence of accused No.17. On that basis, accused Nos.6 to 15 prepared answers to the questions, entered the said answers in the same computer and copy chits in the form of print outs were prepared in respect of the question paper. Accused No.7, in turn, handed the chits back to accused No.1, who circulated them to selected students viz., accused Nos.16 to 26, who copied the answers from the chits and managed to get high rank in the examination.