In yet another controversial development related to Vyapam scam, the Madhya Pradesh government has reportedly transferred one of the key whistle-blowers, Dr Anand Rai, out of Indore.
Dr Rai, who is a medical officer with a government hospital in Indore, has now been transferred to Dhar, according to ANI news agency, in a move that is likely to once again raise the opoosition leaders' hackles.
Rai had filed a complaint with the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) back in 2009 regarding the scam and was among the first few whistle-blowers to even name Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the scam.
Whistle blower in #VyapamScam Dr.Anand Rai transferred from Indore to Dhar (Madhya Pradesh).
— ANI (@ANI_news) July 20, 2015
Rai, who was himself a medical student in Madhya Pradesh in the 2003-07 batch, had grown suspicious of the activities of some of the batchmates and had even told The Times of India that he had seen "doctors pasting photos on fake admission forms".
In 2013, Rai filed a public interest litigation with the Madhya Pradesh High Court and has been receiving death threats regularly, according to NDTV.
The Vyapam admission and recruitment racket has turned out to be one of the murkiest scams in the country, with more than 40 people associated with the case, including accused and beneficiaries, having died under mysterious circumstances over the years.
Even a TV journalist from Delhi, Akshay Singh, who went to interview the family of one of the victims, died suspiciously of a "heart attack" earlier this month, and the mysterious death has even prompted UNESCO to call for a probe into his death.
Following mounting pressure, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister recommended to hand over the Vyapam scam probe to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Supreme Court on 9 July ordered a trasnfer of the probe into the scam, including that of the mysterious deaths related to it, to the CBI and consequently the agecy filed several FIRs.