On 8th
November 24, the electronic media carried startling news showing a video about
a woman being publicly manhandled, stripped, abused and tortured by a group of
people in Rasasori Gram Panchayat under
Dasarathpur block of Jajpur district. It was reported that the people have
gheraoed the house of RTI Activist Ashok Pati
with intention to drag him out from his house to murder him. As the wife
of Ashok Pati resisted them, they dragged her, stripped and abused her publicly
and threatened to murder her husband unless he refrains from filing RTI.
Having been
perturbed over the news and public resentment on this unfortunate incident, on
9.11.24, a fact-finding team of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan ( a Civil
Society Group spearheading campaign for effective implementation of RTI Act in
Odisha) made a visit to the spot to ascertain the fact and
find out possible ways to intervene in the matter in order to
provide justice to the affected RTI Activist and his family . On the way to Rasasori
Gram Panchayat, native of Ashok Pati, it was reported from fellow-RTI Activists
that the affected couple had been detained in Dasarathpur police station. So, the
Team decided to move straight to the Police
station to meet the family rather than visiting his house.
The Team
Members of Fact-finding Team
1.
Pradip Kumar Pradhan, M- 9937843482
2.
Sarbeswar Behura, M- 9437459949
3.
Hrudananda Kodamasingh , M- 9337248512
4.
Simanta Kumar Patra, M-9937324725
( The Team members interacting with
Ashok Pati at dasarath Pur Police
station)
The Team reached
Dasarathpur Police station by 2 o’clock. The Inspector-in-Charge was absent. On
a phone call, he responded that he had come for inquiry into the said incident.
The Team members along with local RTI Activists present there met traumatized Ashok Pati, his wife and mother
and interacted with them about the unfortunate incident of 8th Nov.
The untold
story of a horrible incident narrated by Ashok Pati, RTI Activist and his wife
is as follows.
Ashok Pati
aged 29, an Auto-driver is survived by his wife, mother and a son of 17 months
old. As a social activist, he used to file RTI to expose corruption and
irregularities in development work undertaken in Rasasori Gram Panchayat from
time to time. Having seen misappropriation of crores of rupees by
contractors and Biju Janata Dal workers making false bills without
undertaking any work, he filed 13 RTI
Applications in the month of March and April, 2024 in the office
of Dasarath Pur Block and Rasasori Gram Panchayat seeking information about implementation of 5T
Renovation work in Sri Jagannath Vidya Mandir School, projects undertaken Mo
Odisha-Nabin Odisha programme , works under Mo Pokhari Yojana, Pradhanmantri
Awas Yojana etc. Astonishingly, not a
single RTI Application was compiled by the PIO. But he continued to pursue BDO,
Dasarath Pur Block for supply of information by filing first appeals. The
information which was supplied was again found false and misleading. The
officials remained hell-bent not to vouch for a single information on the
pretext of exposure of corruption and irregularities publicly and started pressurizing him to
withdraw RTI Application. Ashok again filed similar RTI in the name of his wife
in the block office to get the same information.
His repeated filling of RTI Applications enraged BJD Top brass in the area and
put them in mental tension. They started mounting pressure on Ashok to withdraw
RTI Application apprehending that huge
corruption would be exposed , if information was supplied. But he undisturbedly
continued his fight against corruption and demanded information. His relentless
persuasion to access information put the administration in big trouble and
payments against Bills was stopped. Some
development work was also
halted due to non-payments. He also
filed complaint to the Prime
Minister’s office seeking inquiry into
corruption in development works. His
complaint petition was forwarded to
the Collector, Jajpur who
entrusted Deepak Acharya , estimator of DRDA for inquiry. It was alleged
by Ashok Pati that Sri Acharya
without conducting inquiry put pressure on him to refrain from pursuing the
matter and withdraw the complaint.
This
administrative embarrassment due to grinding halt of various programmes in Gram panchayat
prompted Sri Shiba Prasad Rath , husband
of Sarapanch of Rasasori Gram Panchayat
and others to take
certain action against Ashok
Pati. In July 2024, they masterminded
filing a false dalit
atrocity case , as generally
seen in many RTI related
cases to silence RTI Activists, in Dasarathpur Police station against Ashok
Pati. The Police registered the
case and conducted an inquiry. As
it was a false case, the police did not
take any action against him.
In August,
2024, hundreds of people mobilized
by Shiba Prasad Rath gheraoed at his home
and attacked him. He immediately made
a call to the police station and the police
reached on the spot and rescued
him. It was reported
by him that the behavior of
police mainly Sri Abhransu Kumar
Mohanty ASI, was very humiliating. He misbehaved with Ashok
while dealing with the cases filed against him.
(
The Team members interacting with SDPO at DasarathPur Police station)
Despite huge
pressure exerted upon him politically and administratively, Ashok did not bow
down rather continued to pursue RTI
matters to access the information. At
last on 8.11.24, a mob of people and anti-socials of Biju Janata Dal led by
Shiba Prasad Rath, husband of Sarapanch Gitanjali Dwivedi gheraoed Ashok’s house at around 8 AM
and tried to forcibly
entered his house to drag him.
His wife Lalita Pati resisted and did not allow them to enter her house. She
locked her husband and resisted the
madding crowd of anti-socials. The tussle continued
some time and atlast at the direction of Shiba Prasad Rath, these
anti-socials dragged Lalita Pati out of
her house to an open field and nakedly tortured her by pushing and
thrashing her repeatedly and stripped her publicly. After few hours , the
police reached on the spot and rescued
them and carried them ( Ashok
Pati, his wife and mother and his 17 month old son) to the police station but did not arrest anybody.
Discussion
with Sri Satyabrata Lenka, SDPO, Jajpur
While discussing the incident, Sri Lenka shared
a copy of two FIRs filed by Lalita Pati and Annapurna Pati and details
of action taken by the police. The police have
registered two FIRs CC No. 164/24 and 165/24 under
Scand ST (Prevention of Atrocity)
Act on 8.11.24 and started investigation. Two accused Dipti Ranjan panigrahi and Maheswar Sethi alias Putuli have been arrested . The police have formed
three Teams to arrest other accused. He
assured the Team that
the police would arrest others in the course of the day. The Main accused who had masterminded the attack
and whose name has been
reflected in the FIR is Shiba
Prasad Rath, a worker of Biju Janata Dal
has not been arrested till yet.
Over-all Analysis
of occurrence of the incident
The incidence
of attack on RTI Activist and his family members is not new to Odisha nor in
Jajpur. On March 27, 2021, Sarbeswar Behura , RTI Activist of Dharmashala
block of Jajpur district was
bomb-attacked by supari killers engaged
by BJD Mining Mafia . He narrowly escaped. Similarly, a group of 50 people of Pramila Mallik, MLA of Biju Janata Dal (
BJD) attacked Simant Kumar Patra , RTI Activist of Binjharpur block of Jajpur
district in his residence early morning and stripped him and paraded him nakedly in
the village. Four RTI Activists
were murdered for their
fight against corruption by BJD
hooligans. It is
one of
many incidents of attacks on RTI Activists in the state. During the corrupt
regime of Nabin Patnaik of 24
years, more than 100 RTI Activists have
been mercilessly attacked , beaten up ,
family members have been traumatized , murdered and put in jail for false cases. Despite
state-sponsored organized attacks
of BJD workers on RTI
Activists across the state , RTI Activism has not
died out. Rather Activism has
been geared up and RTI Activists and
the common people
have taken it as a challenge and dared
to use RTI to expose corruption and fought
relentlessly against the people, leaders of Biu Janata Dal who are involved in corruption. They have also filed a number of complaints in Lokayukta, Odisha seeking an inquiry into
alleged corruption in various
development works.
The incident
of attack on Ashok Pati, RTI Activist is
part of a large conspiracy of Corrupt political leaders and Contractors of
Biju Janata Dal of that locality and block
administration to silence him and
refrain him from pursuing RTI matters. We
take this incident
very seriously and
make the following
recommendation to Govt. to
take immediate steps in order to give justice to the family of Ashok Pati as well as
protection of RTI Activists
across the state.
1.
All
the people involved in the attack on Ashok Pati and his wife should be arrested and put in jail immediately. Though the Police
has arrested four people as
reported in media , the main accused
Shiba Prasad Rath has not
been arrested. It is heard that
the police are trying to protect
him.
2.
Ashok Pati had
filed a complaint to the Prime Minister’s office seeking an
inquiry into corruption in DasarathPur Block. This complaint
was referred to the Collector, Jajpur for inquiry. Sri Deepak Acharya ,
Estimator of DRDA, Jajpur was
entrusted to conduct inquiry into the
matter. Without conducting any inquiry, he pressured Ashok Pati to compromise with BJD people and
Contractors. We recommend to Govt. to initiate
disciplinary proceedings against him.
3.
As
the corruption and
misappropriation of funds in Govt. work has become order of the
day, not only RTI Activists but the
common people are using RTI to expose it . The corrupt officers , Mafia
and contractors getting affected by
their exposure are adopting various tricks to
threaten them. In this situation
, life of RTI Activists is in danger. We , therefore Request State Govt. mostly Director General of Police
to issue necessary directions to all police stations to take quick action on the
complaint ever filed in context
of any form of attack or violence on RTI Activists. The prompt police action no
doubt helps RTI Activists to work
for the people and fight
against corruption without fear.
4.
It is seen that the
identity of RTI Applicants are
exposed by the PIO and other officials to the
contractors and other affected
people. They easily identify RTI Applicants and try to
influence them or threaten them.
The identity of RTI
Applicant is identified from Identity proof i.e, voter ID Card/ ADHAR
Card submitted by applicants during
filling of RTI Application. The practice of this provision in Odisha is
illegal under RTI Act. The Section 6(2)
of RTI Act clearly stipulates that no identity proof is required except contact address for
Information seekers while filing RTI Application. So, we recommend the State Govt. to withdraw the said provision and accordingly amend
Odisha RTI Rules, 2005 in compatibility
with section 6(2) of RTI Act.
5.
As
the incidence of attack on RTI Activists
has become order of the day, we
recommend State Govt. to enact Whistleblowers’ Protection Act for
security of RTI Activists and
their family members.
Report prepared
by
Pradip Kumar Pradhan
State Convener
Plot No-S-82, Maitree Vihar
Post-Rail Vihar, Bhubaneswar
M-9937843482
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