To
Sri Sunil Kumar
Mishra
State Chief
Information Commissioner, Odisha
Toshali Bhawan,
Satya Nagar,
Bhubaneswar
Sub- Request for instituting an enquiry under Section 18 (3) of RTI Act
into the facts and circumstances leading to coldblooded, barbarous murder of
Ranjan Kumar Das, a prominent RTI user and activist and an anti-corruption
whistle-blower, in the night of 31st January 2020 at Bhaganpur-Berhuan roadside
under Marshaghai PS in Kendrapara district of Odisha along with murder and
attack against RTI activists across the state.
Sir,
We the following signatories belonging to Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan ( OSAA) hereby bring
to your kind notice
the case of gruesome murder of
Ranjan Kumar Das, a renowed anti-corruption RTI Activist and threats of murder already issued to many RTI users and
activists in Odisha and earnestly
seek your intervention and urgent action in the matter.
1. As you
know, RTI Act which came into full force w.e.f. 12th October 2005 is
a unique law with a mandate to bring
transparency and accountability in the administration of the country with an
objective inter alia to contain corruption in public sphere.
2. Since
inception, many RTI Activists
working under the banner of
OSAA have been carrying
forward a sustained
campaign to enable the
common people to access and inspect information through the use of RTI Act and Rules made there under. As
a result, they have been able to expose a bulk of cases involving corruption
and fraud by vested interests in nexus with pliable public servants. Following the constitution of Lokayukta in
Odisha, many of them are filing complaints before Lokayukta for seeking inquiry
into the cases of fraud and corruption exposed by them through RTI exercises. .
3. Being panicked by the exposure of and
complaint against cases of fraud and corruption so carried out by the RTI
activists, and more so by the order for enuiry into such cases issued by
Lokayukta, Odisha, the vested interest groups, such as dishonest contractors,
business houses and corporate honchos have forged a grand alliance with corrupt officials and police personnel to
attack and exterminate physically the anti-corruption whistle-blowers so as to
systematically stamp out any trace of RTI Activism that still survives in the
state.
4. For your kind information, within last couple
of years, apart from the murder of some RTI activists including that of Ranjan
Kumar Das, many RTI Activists across the
state have been subject to physical attacks like merciless beating, forceful confinement and permanent disablement
5. On 10th December 2019, Sri
Abhimanyu Panda, RTI Activist of Kandhamal district who has exposed several
cases of corruption in PDS and
construction of roads under State RD Department and filed a number of appeals/complaints in the office
of Information Commission was brutally
murdered at gunpoint near his residence
in the early morning. After a lot of protest was raised at local and state
level, the police arrested two Supari Killers along with other two suspects involved in his murder. But the
conspirators who masterminded this
murder are still at large in connivance of the local police, who have
deliberately refrained from arresting
them.
6. The latest
incident of such murder took place on 31st January 2020, when Ranjan
Kumar Das, a leading RTI Activist based in Kendrapara district was
cold-bloodedly killed in the dead of night and thrown at roadside near his
village, under Marshaghai Police Station in Kendrapara district. Though more
than 10 days has passed, the police have not yet arrested or interrogated any
suspect, let alone conduction of any
inquiry worth the name. We strongly suspect that the Police under the
invisible pressure of the local
political lobby and vested interest groups are trying to tinker with the
investigation including the post-mortem report so as to hush up the whole truth
about a well-conspired murder of Ranjan Kumar Das.
7. Sir, the increasing spree of
threats to and murder of RTI Activists has frightened many RTI Activists
and their parents to refrain from using
RTI Act to fight against corruption. As a result the RTI Activists are seen under pressure not to pursue their
RTI Applications, First Appeals and Complaints/SA cases already lodged
around the cases of corruption and
fraud in the interest of the common people.
8. Needless to say, under the RTI Act, Information
Commission is the ultimate custodian and
arbiter of the law and as such empowered to ensure its effective implementation of it at
national level or at state level, as the case may be. At the other end, RTI Activists are working
relentlessly to awaken the people
about their rights and
obligations to bring transparency and
accounability in the machinery of administration . as required under a
democratic polity. Thus, both Information Commission and RTI Activists
supplement and complement each other for effective implementation of RTI Act.
9. In view of the above, it should be an abiding
concern of the Information Commission to
see that the life and dignity of the RTI
users and RTI activists be protected
from the offensives mounted by vested interests of all sorts from within and
outside the Government
10.
We,
therefore request the esteemed
Commission to intervene in this matter by way of exercising its civil
court powers to institute an enquiry
under Section 18 (3) of RTI Act
to lay bare the machinations of the vested interests that lay behind the recent
wave of mortal attacks and threats carried out by the hired goons. Besides, the
Commission using its powers under Section 25(5) of RTI Act is also earnestly
requested to recommend to the Director General of Police to take stern action
against the anti-RTI miscreants on one hand and to provide security and
protection to RTI activists on the other.
11.
Last but not the least, we also fervently request the Commission to take up
all cases of Complaints/ Second
Appeals filed by the recently murdered Abhimanyu Panda of Kandhamal and Ranjan Kumar Das of Kendrapara and adjudicate the said
cases on merit and direct the
concerned Public Authorities to
put the concerned information on their
respective websites and also to
impose penalty on the concerned PIOs under Section 20
of the RTI Act.
Looking forward to your well thought response in this
matter,
Yours sincerely
Pradip Pradhan
State Convener
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