Vyapam Scam Whistleblower Dr Anand Rai Moves Supreme Court Against MP Police Arrest

Vyapam Scam Whistleblower Dr Anand Rai has moved the Supreme Court against Madhya Pradesh High Court's order refusing to quash the FIR registered against him and vacating the interim order of protection granted to him in a case related to a Facebook post.

Senior Advocate Vivek Tankha on Friday informed a Bench headed by CJI Ramana that Rai was arrested Thursday night after the whole police force came to Delhi and took him to Madhya Pradesh. He added that the arrest was made despite a notice to appear before the police today.

The CJI greed to list on 11th april (Monday) Rai's special leave petition.

The Petitioner has argued that since he is the Whistleblower of the infamous Vyapam scam related to alleged malpractices in entrance tests and recruitments in the State of Madhya Pradesh, the State has had an axe to grind against him.

The present case arises out of an FIR which was lodged on the basis of a Facebook Post in which allegations of paper leak were made against Laxman Singh Markam, Deputy Secretary to the Chief Minister's Officer.

The FIR against the petitioner was lodged on Markam's complaint under Sections 419, 469, 470, 500, 504, 120B IPC and Sections 3 (1) (q), 3 (1) (d), and Section 3 (2) (va) of SC/ST Atrocities Act, 1989

According to Rai, a bare perusal of the said Facebook Post would reveal that by way of the said post, he had merely questioned as to how the examination and answer key to the said examination had leaked onto the mobile phone of Markam.

The petitioner has argued that High Court's finding that a bare perusal of the complaint as well as the FIR which has been registered against him prima facie makes out a cognizable case for which investigation is required in the matter is wrong.

According to Rai, the matter at best is a case of alleged defamation of an individual

Further the petitioner has argued that High Court's finding that he has not complied with notices issued to him under Section 91 CrPC and has not cooperated with investigation is wrong on facts, as on 2nd April he visited crime branch office Bhopal for cooperating in investigation along with his counsel pursuant to notice issued to him and assured the investigating officer that he is ready and willing to cooperate in the investigation of the present case.

According to the petitioner, the finding of theHigh Court that there is a remedy of anticipatory bail under Section 438 of CrPC available to the Petitioner is also bad in law as in the present case as per law it is mandatory for the investigating agency to issue noticeunder Section 41A to the accused as per the directions of Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar Vs State of Bihar.

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