Ex DC Doda, Tehsildar had falsely implicated them Court acquits RTI activists of theft, rioting 1/9/2015 10:42:57 PM Early Times Report Jammu, Jan 9: A local court in Bhalessa Doda district has acquitted nine Right to Information Activists (RTI Activists) from several criminal charges which were filed against them way back in 2011 when they had tried to expose a scam related to issuance of Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) in the area. The local revenue department officials in order to hide their misdeeds had falsely implicated the RTI activists who tried to undertake inspection of EPIC related official records of the Tehsil office Bhalessa under the provisions of section 2 (i) of J&K RTI Act 2009. The court of Judicial Magistrate Gandoh Bhalessa district Doda while issuing the judgment on 20.9.2014 said that prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond the reasonable doubts. The judgment reads as : The doubt lurks in the mind of court and benefit of doubt goes in favour of the accused persons. Accordingly challan is dismissed. The accused persons are acquitted of offences under section 382, 147 , 201 of RPC. The personal bonds and surety bonds stand discharged . Challan is disposed off and file to be consigned to the records after its due completion While talking to Early Times Ghulam Qadir Mir a noted RTI activist of Bhalessa who also was one of the accused in the case said it was at the behest of the then Deputy Commissioner Doda and local Tehsildar that this false case was filed against nine of our activists. It was done to hide the misdeeds of revenue department and to put a pressure on people that they should not use RTI to seek information, but we cannot be mum and nobody can muzzle our genuine voice as we will continue to fight against corruption using our Right to Information (RTI). We are believe that law has taken its own course and we got the justice RTI activist and founder of J&K RTI Movement Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat while lauding the role of judiciary said that justice has been done with these innocent people who wanted to fight against the corrupt system. Now more and more people will use RTI to seek information in the corruption ridden district of Doda and this judgment has not only boosted the morale of RTI activists but people at large. We will now file a case against the former DC and Tehsildar before the competent court for tarnishing the image of RTI activists. We also appeal Chief Secretary and DC Doda to order for fresh probe into the EPIC scam in Bhalessa Dr Muzaffar added. Pertinent to mention that in August 2011 a case of theft , rioting and destruction of evidence was registered against Ghulam Qadir Mir and eight other RTI activists namely Ghulam Qadir Malik, Mool Raja Bhal , Jan Mohammad , Kesar Singh , Ab Lateef Bhat , Liyaqat Ali (Sarpanch) , Tariq Hussain, Hakimdin. As the activists were busy with inspection of election related records in the Tehsil office Bhalessa and sensing trouble the election clerk raised hue and cry that RTI activists took away official record. The DC and Tehsildar added fuel to the fire and got these activists arrested and subsequently fake cases were registered against them and from the last more than three and a half years they were fighting the legal battle in the local court . The judgment which was actually announced on 29th October was not made public for three months and during this time appeal period also exhausted and this clearly indicates that officials involved didnt wanted to further pursue this case as tehsil office officials including former Tehsildar Gandoh Bhalessa knew that the case was based on bundle of lies. It is important to mention that former tehsildar in his statement before court said that he was busy with farewell function of SDM when the so called theft and rioting took place in tehsil office Gandoh Bhalessa and had nothing to do with the case.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 04:13:03 +0000