New Delhi: A key whistle-blower in the Vyapam scam who has been transferred from Indore to Dhar on Monday said he was being "targeted" by the Madhya Pradesh government.

"The (transfer) order was issued at the behest of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. I received the order at 11:15 this morning. Mid-session transfer is usually not the practice. Now that the CBI is probing the scam, they are all very perturbed. The government is targeting me just to scare me and they want me to surrender. But I am not going to succumb to any pressure," Rai, a government doctor, told IANS from Indore.

Rai, posted at the Regional Health and Family Welfare Training Centre in Indore, has now been transferred to the district hospital in Dhar.

Rai said he would move court to challenge his transfer.

His wife Gouri Rai, also a government doctor, was transferred from the civil hospital at Mhow in Indore to the Ujjain district hospital in June.

Rai lodged a complaint with the CBI against senior BJP leader and former union minister Vikram Verma, alleging that he used his influence to get his daughter, pursuing MBBS at Santosh Medical College in Ghaziabad, transferred to Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.

The CBI has registered 12 cases so far, following the Supreme Court's order, to probe the Vyapam scam.

According to reports, the admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh could be pegged at Rs.20,000 crore and involve about 30,000 people.

More than 40 people associated with the Vyapam scam have died — mostly unnaturally or under mysterious circumstances.

(IANS)