Patna, Aug. 26: A small note of caution for whistleblowers in the state — raise voice against corruption at your own risk.
The criminal investigation department (CID) has probed into sample FIRs filed against some Right to Information (RTI) activists and found that many were harassed for exposing corruption in various welfare schemes.
The state police headquarters had assigned a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), posted with the CID, to investigate complaints of some RTI activists that they were targeted for fighting against graft.
The RTI activists had alleged that some government officials and lower rank police personnel were hand in glove with the “tormentors”, who were moving scot-free even after misappropriating public funds. DSP Raghunath Choudhary visited Vaishali, to find out if the allegations of RTI activists Shyam Kishore Bhagat and Bajrang Jha were true or not. Bhagat and Jha are residents of Goroul in Vaishali.
On July 10, Choudhary visited Goroul police station and met the superintendent of police to inquire into the allegations of harassment against Jha, who had been credited with exposing financial irregularities in water pump (drinking water scheme) scheme, solar light project, public distribution system and schemes related to the welfare of people belonging to the above and below poverty lines since 2007.
During investigation, Choudhary came to know that a public distribution system (PDS) dealer, Paras Singh, and his associates allegedly assaulted the activist on January 14, 2012. Jha, a retired public servant, lodged a case (No. 13/12) with the Goroul police station against Singh, but nothing happened.
The licence of Singh’s shop was cancelled after the irregularities were detected during a probe by the sub-divisional officer of Mahua. The CID probe found that the SDO did not lodge any case against Singh. It was also found that two cases (no. 213/10 and 316/10) were lodged by the PDS dealer against Jha to allegedly harass him.
Another RTI activist, Shyam Kishore Bhagat, also had to pay the price for raising voice against corruption. He was dragged into legal wrangling after an FIR (no. 59/12) was lodged against him on March 13, 2012, on the basis of the statement of one Prabhunath Prasad, alias Raja Sah.
Bhagat had unearthed a scam in the construction of drains in the Manpur panchayat in 2009-10 under the supervision of Vinita Devi, a panchayat samiti member. Block programme officer Gunjan Kumar said the work was not done according to norms and plundering of public money could not be ruled out.
What is surprising is that the allegations against Shyam Kishore were found “true” in the supervision report submitted by the Mahua circle inspector. As a result, Shyam had to seek bail from court to avoid police atrocities. The CID DSP, who submitted his report to the superintendent of police (crime) at the police headquarters, said the case against Bhagat was allegedly lodged by the panchayat member’s husband to harass him.
Bhagat today said: “We are doing the work of an government agency by exposing corruption at different levels, but we are at the receiving end.”