Vyapam scam whistleblower Anand Rai moves Supreme Court against dismissal of his plea to quash FIR in defamation case

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The 'whistleblower' in the Vyapam Scam case Dr. Anand Rai has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court order dismissing his plea seeking quashing of FIR in an alleged defamation case.

Rai has alleged that since he is the whistleblower of the infamous Vyapam scam arising out of the State of Madhya Pradesh, the State government has had an ax to grind against him. Notably, according to News Reports, Rai was arrested in Delhi on Thursday by the MP Police in relation to the same FIR. 

The FIR in question was filed over a Facebook Post against the sitting Under Secretary in the State Government of Madhya Pradesh under Sections 419, 469, 470, 500, 504, 120 B of IPC read with Section 3(1)(q)/ 3(1)(Da) and Section 3(2)(Va) of the Atrocities Act.

Against this FIR, Rai's plea states that the bare perusal of the said Facebook Post would reveal that in fact, by way of the said post, he had merely questioned the leaking of the examination papers and their answer keys for the entrance tests and recruitments in the State of Madhya Pradesh onto the mobile phone of one individual. He has alleged that he has only stated that the said incident requires investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The plea also states that the finding of the Hon'ble High Court that some words derogatory in nature to SC/ST committee were used by the petitioner and were posted in public platform is also incorrect as in the FIR no such word has been mentioned by the complainant.

"Further even the tweet and the snapshot of the Facebook post with time stamp do not disclose such word used by the Petitioner herein. Moreover, as per this Hon'ble Court the provisions of SC/ST Act are attracted where the offence has not been committed on account of caste of victim," Rai's plea reads.

In addition to this, it has been further alleged by Rai that the High Court failed to consider the malafide intent and haste in the conduct of the State Police to lodge the FIR in order to persecute Rai at the behest of an individual who enjoys a public office with the Stae.

Cause Title: Dr Anand Rai Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh and Anr.