The social and RTI activists have been rendered a vulnerable lot, thanks to the indifferent attitude of police in Noida where all sorts of illegal activities are rampant. The police refused to learn a lesson from the mysterious death of RTI activist Chandra Mohan Sharma in Greater Noida a few months back even as many others are being threatened and targeted by the goons on a regular basis. In a fresh case, RTI activist Anoop Singh has been getting life threats and asked not to seek any information through RTI in future. The activist, who also holds post of vice-president of the Dankaur unit of the BJP, had been abducted earlier, burnt with cigarette butts on his private parts and had been beaten with iron rods before being dumped in a neighbouring district after he exposed certain irregularities in infrastructure projects underway in the region.
Even last week, Salimuddin Solanki, an RTI activist general secretary of an advocacy group namely Human Rights Revolution, has alleged that he has received calls to face dire consequences by village head of his relative’s village. Solanki had also been threatened to kill and have been attacked several times for opposing use of inferior materials in road construction.
Singh, in his fresh complaint, has alleged that he has been receiving calls to stop filing RTIs related to road and other infrastructure projects. The callers are ye to be identified. He also blamed police failure for not taking action against his abductors despite registering an FIR. “Despite previous incident, threats calls are coming regularly. We have approached local police several times to initiate action against the accused persons but no action has been taken yet. Now after fresh calls, it has been revealed that RTI activists are not safe at all,” said Sanjeev Singh, brother of Anoop.
Meanwhile, police claimed that they have taken the matter seriously and are trying to identify the callers. Police have, however, offered protection to Singh. “As we have received a written complaint, we are investigating the matter. Once the callers are identified, we will be able to take action against them,” said Brajesh Kumar Singh, Superintendent of Police (Rural) of Greater Noida. Earlier in second week of December last year, Singh was abducted from Dankaur, had burnt with cigarettes and hot rods, including on his private parts with more than 40 burn injuries all over his body, including on his face, thighs and legs. Police had registered a case but had failed to arrest any of the accused so far.