Madhya Pradesh: HC dismisses Dr Anand Rai’s plea on quashing of FIR

BHOPAL/JABALPUR: The MP high court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition filed by Dr

Anand Rai

in which he prayed to quash an FIR registered against him on a complaint by deputy secretary at the CM secretariat, Laxman Singh Markam.

Police have booked

Rai

and Congress leader K K Mishra under SC/ST Act. The court, in its judgment, said that the case doesn’t come in the category of rarest of rare cases so as to warrant quashing of the FIR. The court, however, gave liberty to Rai to file a petition under Article 482 for quashing of FIR and move an anticipatory bail plea. The court revoked its order that no coercive action should be taken against Dr Rai till the final decision on his petition.

Markam in his FIR lodged at AJAKS police station had accused Rai and Mishra of fabricating screenshots of his mobile to implicate him in the alleged leak of teachers’ eligibility test paper. Rai, in his petition, said that the screenshot of the leaked paper conducted by Vyapam (now known as Staff Selection Board) was getting viral and Laxman Singh's name was visible in the screenshot. He had shared the screenshot on social media and asked ‘who is this Laxman Singh’. Markam then lodged an FIR against him and Mishra.

Rai said he will appeal in Supreme Court. The fact that solicitor general

Tushar Mehta

appeared in the case against him at Monday’s hearing “shows the intentions of the state government”, he said. To a notice served on him to be present at the crime branch on Friday, Dr Rai emailed the DGP and crime branch that he will do so “very soon”.