Vyapam: MP govt gets a week to reply on whistleblowers' charges

Anand Rai had alleged that Shivraj Singh Chouhan had pressurised him to stop campaigning against him

Madhya Pradesh High Court today granted one more week to the state government to file its reply on Vyapam scam whistleblower Anand Rai's affidavit in which he alleged that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had pressurised him to stop campaign against him and his family.

On September 2, Rai (38) had filed a written submission to a division bench of high court comprising Justices PK Jaiswal and DK Paliwal, stating that Chouhan had been mounting pressure on him to stop campaigning against him and his family in Vyapam scam, a massive admission and recruitment racket.

The HC had then asked the state government to file a sworn-in submission to government doctor Rai's charge within a week. However, the additional advocate general Sunil Jain today sought one more week to file the reply, to which the high court agreed.

Rai today moved two applications including one that stated that the Chief Minister should be made respondent in his petition and in that capacity he should give the written undertaking to his affidavit.

The second application alleged that he and his doctor wife had not been paid salary for the month of August in order to "pressurise" them.

In his affidavit, Rai had earlier stated that he was summoned by the CM to his official residence on August 11, 2015 through a common friend.

"The meeting began at 9.45 PM and ended at 10.50 PM in the night," Rai's affidavit said.

"The Chief Minister assured me that if I stopped my campaign on Vyapam as well as Dental and Medical Admission Test (DMAT) quota scam against him and his family, I and my wife will be allowed to remain in Indore and my transfer order will be cancelled," the affidavit claimed.