INDORE: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday served a notice to the state government asking it to explain within two days the reason behind frequent transfers of Vyapam scam whistleblower Dr Anand Rai and his wife Dr Gauri Rai, both working with the state’s health department. It also directed the state not to act against the couple till the case was decided.

The bench of justices P K Jaiswal and T K Kaushal was hearing a petition filed by Dr Anand and Dr Gauri challenging their transfers.

The court said newspapers had reported about the deaths of more than 40 people associated with the Vyapam scam and a whistleblower too had died recently. So what is the need to transfer a whistleblower (Dr Anand) who has admittedly exposed the scam and submitted several documents relating to it to the CBI, the court said.

Dr Gauri, who was posted in Mhow, was transferred to Ujjain in the first week of July. She has now been transferred to Dhar, around 60 km from Indore. Dr Anand has been transferred from Indore to Dhar.

The petitioners’ counsel, Anand Mohan Mathur, said they challenged the transfer on three grounds. First, it is the mala fide intention of the state to transfer a whistleblower who raised various issues related to the scam and complained against CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, education minister Narottam Mishra and senior IAS and IPS officers for irregularities. Recently, Dr Anand had also complained to the CBI against senior BJP member from Dhar, Vikram Verma.

Second, as per the state government’s transfer policy, employees are not transferred after June. In case they are, an approval is needed of the minister of the concerned department or the CM. “In this case no such approval was taken before transfer,” Mathur said.

Third, the couple were transferred to Dhar — a constituency represented by a political family against whom Dr Anand had complained to the CBI. “This is likely to put the life of the whistleblower in danger,” the counsel said.

According to advocate Anshuman Shrivastava, the HC said that instead of providing security to the whistleblower, the state was threatening him. Dr Anand alleged the state government was harassing his family for exposing the Vyapam scam. “They have problems with me, but they are troubling my wife,” he said.

The whistleblower also challenged the state government’s move to transfer them to Dhar district. “I had lodged a complaint against BJP leader Vikram Verma, who is an influential leader in Dhar,” he said. “Neena Verma, wife of Vikram Verma, is an MLA from Dhar. Now, the state has transferred us to Dhar just to harass us.”

Dr Anand said he complained against Vikram to the CBI for illegally getting his daughter transferred from the Ghaziabad-based Santosh Medical College (a private college) to the Bhopal-based Gandhi Medical College (a government college) without clearing any medical entrance test or the All-India Pre-Medical Test.

