Vyapam scam whistleblower Anand Rai's lawyer on Friday approached Supreme Court and mentioned his plea seeking an early hearing of his petition against the Madhya Pradesh High Court order, which dismissed his plea for quashing of the FIR and vacated interim relief granted to him.
A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana agreed to hear it on Monday (April 11).
Senior Advocate Vivek Tankha, appearing for Rai, told the Supreme Court that "The whistleblower has been arrested even though the principal accused is on bail".
He also told the Court the Madhya Pradesh police had issued notice to him to appear and join the investigation today but he was arrested last night from Delhi, days after he moved a plea in the top Court.
Anand Rai had filed a special leave petition against the Madhya Pradesh High Court order dated April 4, 2022, whereby the High Court has dismissed the petition preferred by the petitioner Rai for quashing of the FIR dated March 27, 2022, and has vacated the interim Order dated April 1, 2022, granted by the High Court.
On April 1, Madhya Pradesh High Court has granted interim protection from arrest to Rai.
"The present case highlights the instances where a mighty and vindictive state may leave no stone unturned in order to harass a citizen and abuse the process of law to convert a possible individual case of defamation into an FIR," the petitioner said adding that he was Whistleblower of the infamous Vyapam scam arising out of the State of Madhya Pradesh and therefore the State has had an axe to grind against him.
"The Petitioner enjoys immense public faith and following due to the social causes he has fought for in the past. The present case arises out of an FIR which was lodged on the basis of a Facebook Post against the sitting Under Secretary (Respondent No.2 herein / Informant) with the State of Madhya Pradesh, " the petition said.
"A bare perusal of the said Facebook Post would reveal that in fact, by way of the said post, the Petitioner had merely questioned as to how the examination and answer key to the said examination had leaked onto the mobile phone," the petition reads.
( With inputs from ANI )
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