Hours after suspension, Vyapam scam whistleblower held from Delhi

Soon after his arrest, Dr Rai took to social media, saying: "I have been arrested by the Crime Branch from Delhi's Hotel Kabli. All workers and wellwishers are requested to come to Bhopal."

Vyapam scam whistleblower Dr Anand Rai (Twitter @anandrai177)

3 min readBhopalApr 8, 2022 06:05 PM IST First published on: Apr 8, 2022 at 01:46 PM IST

Madhya Pradesh’s crime branch police on Thursday arrested Vyapam scam whistleblower Dr Anand Rai from a hotel in Delhi in connection with a case registered by an officer posted in the Chief Minister’s Office.

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Dr Rai was arrested hours after he was suspended from his post of medical officer at Indore’s Hukumchand hospital for failing to discharge his duty and was shunned out to Rewa.

This comes after a case was registered against Dr Rai and Congress state spokesman KK Mishra on a complaint by Laxman Singh Markham, Deputy Secretariat at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, who alleged that the duo had dragged his name into the controversy concerning the paper leak of MP’s Teachers Eligibility Test that was held on March 22.

मुझे दिल्ली से होटल काबली से क्राइम ब्रांच भोपाल ने हिरासत में ले लिया है, सभी कार्यकर्ता शुभचिंतक भोपाल पहुँचे @VTankha @KapilSibal

— Office Of Dr Anand Rai (@anandrai177) April 7, 2022

Soon after his arrest, Dr Rai took to social media, saying: “I have been arrested by the Crime Branch from Delhi’s Hotel Kabli. All workers and wellwishers are requested to come to Bhopal.”

Confirming his arrest, DCP crime branch Amit Kumar said: “Anand Rai has been arrested and brought to Bhopal in connection with the FIR registered against him in the paper leak case. We are investigating the matter.”

The Teacher Eligibility Test was being conducted by the Karmachari Chayan Aayog (Staff Selection Board), which was earlier known as Vyavasaik Parreksha Mandal (Vyapam) before it was renamed as Professional Examination Board (PEB). But an alleged screenshot of the question paper along with the answer sheet had gone viral on the social media, which had the name of Laxman Singh visible on it. Laxman Singh Markham had alleged that a fabricated screenshot was made viral.

Dr Rai had approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court for quashing the FIR against him. The MP High Court had last week put a stay on any coercive action against the whistleblower until April 4, but his petition was dismissed on Friday.

Dr Rai was in Delhi to move the Supreme Court, seeking relief in the case registered against him.

Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha called Dr Rai’s arrest from Delhi without an arrest warrant “illegal”.