The whistleblowers who exposed the scam in the conduct of professional examinations related to admission to professional courses and recruitment have been constantly facing threats.

New Delhi

Case 1: A senior bureaucrat in Bhopal allegedly threatened Prashant Pandey, a whistleblower in the Vyapam Scam, inside a closed chamber: “Goli baayen se ghusegi,daayen se nikal jayegi. Bheje ke andar jitna bhara hai, baahar aa jayega. Samaj mein aaya?” [The bullet will pierce through the left side (of the skull) and come out of the right. Whatever is stuffed inside your brain will come out. Got it?]

Case 2: A retired police officer and now a BJP leader Hari Singh Yadav allegedly threatened Ashish Chaturvedi in a public function of dire consequences after the latter officially complained with evidences against Yadav’s son-in-law Deepak Yadav, one of the kingpins of Vyapam scam from Gwalior.

These cases are tip of an iceberg in the high-profile, multi-crore Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam, better known as the Vyapam Scam. The scam has exposed the rampant violation of the Whistleblowers’ Act in the state where the whistleblowers instead of getting immunity, have been physically attacked and threatened.

The Whistleblowers’ Protection Act is a mechanism to investigate alleged corruption and misuse of power by public servants and also protect anyone who exposes alleged wrongdoing (fraud, scam, corruption or mismanagement) in government bodies or offices.

But the scenario in MP is altogether different. The whistleblowers who exposed the scam in the conduct of professional examinations related to admission to professional courses and recruitment have been constantly facing threats. One of them, Prashant Pandey, had to leave MP for a safer hideout.

Pandey, a 35-year old Digital Forensic expert and an ethical hacker, has been providing his services to the state police, Intelligence Bureau, Special Task Force (STF) and the Income Tax department to crack cases. He is one of the whistleblowers to take the lid off the Vyapam scam. As the scam allegedly involves ‘politicians, bureaucrats and powerful people’, Pandey’s exposé didn’t go down well with the state government. One day, he was picked by the same police for whom he had been working for years.

“I was sent to jail on a false charge of leaking data, about which I was completely unaware. I got bail, but again I was picked up by the police and was taken to police headquarters in Bhopal. They wanted to eliminate me, but at the last moment the plan changed and I was set free. I decided not to work with the police ever. I’ve been attacked half a dozen times. The last time I was attacked was when I was returning from Mhow to Indore with my family by car. A truck hit my car and we were thrown off, and all were badly injured. There’s severe violation of the Whistleblowers’ Act in MP and today, I’m compelled to leave the state that I belong to,” Pandey told Firstpost.

After facing 14 attacks and numerous threats to life, 25-year old Ashish Chaturvedi, a student of Master of Social Work, has got security cover from state police. But, it has turned out to be a joke in the state. Chaturvedi, who actively exposed corruption in entrance examinations of medical and dental streams, moves on a bicycle. The police guard rides with him on the same bicycle.

“Despite the constable telling his officers that providing security in this manner won’t be possible, no action has yet been taken. I’ve come to Delhi along with the security guards. But, the irony is that they don’t want to accompany me as I travel either by bus or Metro rail. They want a car to accompany me, which is hilarious,” said Chaturvedi.

The state unit of the CPI (M) has offered security to Chaturvedi, which the latter has declined politely. “I’m thankful to the CPI (M), but I won’t be able to accept it. But, I’ll continue fighting my battle against corruption,” added Chaturvedi.

“The whistleblower is openly naming the persons who have threatened him, but no action has been taken, like in the case of BJP leader Hari Singh Yadav. The MP High Court has rejected large number of PILs and is not ready to listen to whistleblowers. Madhya Pradesh is in an absolute state of anarchy as the Act has openly been flouted by the government machinery. Our state unit has offered a jeep and protection to Chaturvedi,” said CPI (M), Central Committee member and State Secretary, Badal Saroj.

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said, “I don’t want to touch upon the Vyapam case as it’s in the Supreme Court. But the genesis of this scam lies in the poor education system of our country. Every parent wants his or her child to become an engineer, doctor or an IT professional. But, when it doesn’t happen, people try to get admission though a corrupt system like Vyapam. There’s not a single political party in India, whose sole focus or agenda had been the education. Scams are not uncommon in education sector in our country, where individual or institutions play the role. But in the Vyapam scam, the state is involved, which is the worst.”

The stories of the two other whistleblowers – Dr Anand Rai and Ajay Dubey - are no different.

“I’ve been working on RTI since its inception. Vyapam has turned out to be a hotbed of corruption. The most surprising element in Vyapam case is that the corrupt babus used RTI to have an access to OMR sheets of PMT entrance test and filled up the blank sheets in lieu of money to make a candidate pass the exam. The MP government proposed a bill to block RTI applications, but after our fierce opposition it has temporarily been stalled. There is every attempt to gag whistleblowers’ voice. Several times I’ve been threatened to stay away from DMAT and Vyapam cases, which I have been following since 2008,” said Dubey.

Both Dr Rai, a medical professional from Indore and his wife have had a tough time as besides threats, they faced ‘actions’ from the government in the form of suspension from respective jobs, followed by transfers.

Former Additional Solicitor General and senior advocate, Vivek K Tankha added, “Whatever is going on in MP is unconstitutional. How can the right to access judiciary be taken away from a person? How can the advocate general of the state decide not to give access to judiciary to an applicant?”