Best Whistleblowers RTI Activists: Dr. Anand Rai is an Indian Whistleblower

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Dr. Anand Rai is an Indian Whistleblower, RTI Activist, Medical Officer and Ophthalmologist.

Dr. Anand Rai [ MBBS, MS ]

Born January 1, 1977
Mahendragaon, Harda
Nationality Indian
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Awards Madhya Pradesh Foundation Award 2015

Dr. Anand Rai is an Indian Whistleblower, RTI Activist, Medical Officer and Ophthalmologist. Dr. Anand Rai is best known for exposing the big Vyapam Scam.

The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), also known by its Hindi acronym "Vyapam", is responsible for conducting several examinations that are used to select candidates for educational institutes and government jobs. A nexus of politicians, MPPEB officials and middlemen carried out massive irregularities in these exams, allowing undeserving canddiates to be selected.

VYAPAM SCAM

Dr. Anand Rai attended the MGM Medical College in Indore during 2003-2007. There, Dr. Anand Rai noticed several irregularities that allowed the children of bureaucrats and politicians to do well despite not attending classes or exams. Dr. Anand Rai became suspicious in 2005 when he attended his MD exams and found that many of the top qualified students were from the same Hostel Block. At that time, Dr. Anand Rai did not raise the issue as he was a junior. Dr. Anand Rai then visited the state capital Bhopal to alert the government authorities. According to him, Dr. Anand Rai saw a junior Doctor Dr Deepak Yadav and others manipulating medical exam forms, which made him suspect a scam. In 2008, he met his batchmate Dr. Jadgish Sagar (later found to be the kingpin of the Vyapam Scam) at the wedding of a common friend.

Dr Sagar had left a suitcase at the wedding venue. When he did not return for a long time, Dr. Anand Rai opened the suitcase to look for Dr Sagar's contact information. In the suitcase, he found several Pre-Medical Test (PMT) admission forms and photographs.

After finishing his post-graduation, Dr. Anand Rai joined the college as a faculty member.

In 2009, Dr. Anand Rai decided to expose the irregularities in the medical exams, and filed a complaint with MPPEB. The board formed a committee to investigate the matter and discovered that 280 proxy candidates had impersonated the actual candidates in the exams.

Dr. Anand Rai believed the scam to be much bigger, and suspected involvement of politicians and bureaucrats in it. After having filed repeated complaints and receiving no response, finally he filed a Public Interest Litigation requesting investigation into the scam in July 2013.

The subsequent investigation, led by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), resulted in arrests of several politicians including the state's former education minister. He also filed a petition in Supreme Court of India to hand over the investigation of DMAT scam, a private medical college admission scam.

Since 2005, Dr. Anand Rai has filed more than 1000 RTI applications, including the clinical drug trials with the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI)

2015 transfer

On 17 July 2015, Dr. Anand Rai lodged a complaint with CBI against senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Mr Vikram Verma. Dr. Anand Rai alleged that Verma had used his influence and power to get his MBBS student daughter transferred from a medical college in Uttar Pradesh to Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. On 20 July 2015, the Government transferred him from the health department's training institute in Indore to Dhar. Dr. Anand Rai alleged that he was being hounded for complaining against Verma, and stated that he would challenge the transfer in court.Dr. Anand Rai filed an affidavit in the High court and alleged that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had asked him to stop the campaign against Vyapam scam and DMAT scam. In return, his transfer orders will be cancelled. The court then granted one week to the state government to file the counter affidavit. However, on September 18, 2015, the government cancelled the transfer orders without filing any reply.