Fuming over the spurt in attacks on RTI activists in the State, RTI activists under the banner of the Youth Social Workers have demanded a Crime Branch inquiry into the brutal attack on disabled RTI activist Kesab Mahakud of Nayagarh district. Currently undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College Hospital here, Mahakud on Monday alleged that the September 22 attack on him was designed by the local police.
Mahakud earned the ire of police when he sought information through RTI Act from the Nayagarh district police on the November 2014 dacoity in Darpanarayanpur in which gold and silver ornaments weighing about 40 kg were robbed. Although police detected the case, it was alleged that a major chunk of the recovered stolen items were pocketed by the police.
“Soon after I made the RTI application seeking details of the stolen and recovered items, police turned vindictive,” Mahakud alleged, adding that he was falsely booked and arrested on August 22 in a case registered under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
After he was released on bail in the first week of September, Mahakud had received several threatening calls, and on September 22 evening he was attacked by a group of masked men near the Bolgarh bus-stand. Mahakud, who is physically handicapped without a forelimb, sustained fracture injuries in his legs and the solitary hand. Condemning the attack at police behest, social workers have demanded proper protection to RTI activists and a Crime Branch probe into the attack on Mahakud.