The office of the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, known by its Hindi acronym of Vyapam.
The chairman of Madhya Pradesh High Court Bar Association, advocate Adarsh Munni Trivedi, who had in the past represented petitioners seeking a CBI probe in Vyapam scam, today could not appear before the High Court here as he took ill and his family suspected an attempt at food poisoning.
Mr Trivedi on Wednesday was going to appear in another PIL about rigged admissions to private medical colleges.
"My father fell sick in early hours yesterday after consuming mangode (a fried snack made of lentil and gram) that someone had placed on the table in his office. We keep snacks in our office and my father ate a piece thinking that a family member or a client had brought them," said Mr Ashish, his elder son.
Mr Ashish, himself a lawyer, said the family suspected that someone put mangode with the intention of harming his father because advocate Trivedi was the counsel of former MLA Paras Saklecha who has moved the High Court demanding a CBI inquiry in the Dental Medical Admission Test (DMAT) for the private medical colleges.
Mr Saklecha has alleged that admissions to private medical colleges through DMAT were regularly rigged between 2007 and 2014 and crores of rupees changed hands.
According to Mr Ashish, his father told the family at around 11am today that he was seriously sick after he ate the snack yesterday. He complained of vomiting and nausea immediately after eating.
"We can't approach the police now as the maid working in the office disposed of the leftovers," Mr Ashish added.
Mr Ashish's younger brother Mr Aseem appeared in the PIL in place of his father today.
The present PIL is not about Vyapam (Hindi short-form for Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board) scam. But advocate Trivedi had earlier argued for legislators Sanjay Pathak and Umag Singhar who had moved the HC seeking a CBI probe into Vyapam scam.
On that PIL, the court constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by retired Justice Chandresh Bhusan to monitor the STF investigations in Vyapam scam, Mr Ashish said.
The Vyapam scam, a massive admission and recruitment scandal, has acquired a serious dimension now with several people associated with it dying under mysterious circumstances.