There seems to be no end to the harassment of Vyapam whistle-blower Anand Rai and his family. Weeks after the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh shunted out doctor Anand Rai from Indore to Dhar, his wife, a gynaecologist, has now been transferred to the same district — her second transfer in one month.

Gauri Rai was transferred from the civil hospital at Mhow in Indore to Ujjain district hospital in July.

Dr. Rai said the persistent hounding of his family was to “demoralise and destabilise” him. It was also an attempt to influence the CBI probe into the recruitment scam. “The government is aware that the whistle-blowers are good resource for the CBI. To ensure that we play no part in the probe, we are being pressured and entangled in a legal battle to divert our resources and attention,” Dr. Rai told The Hindu.

Dr. Gauri Rai, 33, was suspended in January for seeking childcare leave. Despite filing for a childcare leave she received no reply from her department for over six months. She moved the Indore High Court. Though she was reinstated, she was last month transferred to Ujjain even as four other doctors suspended along with her were promoted. On July 31, Dr. Gauri Rai was summoned by the Principal Secretary (Health), Gauri Singh, who asked her to withdraw her PIL in the childcare case. Dr. Rai, who has a young child to nurture, says the transfer would pose serious health and security issues for her. Dr. Rai is under police protection.

The Rais have challenged the transfers in the Indore High Court. Mr. Rai, a former RSS office-bearer who has played a vital role in exposing the scam, was shunted to Dhar — a tribal belt — just days after he lodged a complaint against senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Vikram Verma.

Dhar, in the Malwa region, is Mr. Verma’s home turf and Neena Verma, his wife, is the local MLA. “I feel unsafe. I can be attacked anytime. I will have no one to go to,” Mr. Rai said while lamenting the ineffectiveness of the Whistle-blowers Protection Act.

In his complaint to the CBI on July 17, Mr. Rai alleged that the BJP leader used his power and influence to get his daughter, who was pursuing MBBS in a college in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, transferred to the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.