Family members of slain Kedar Singh Jindan, along with several locals and activists, have demanded a CBI probe into the matter.
New Delhi: Even as the Centre dithers on implementing the Whistleblowers Protection Act, which was passed four years ago to protect anyone who exposes alleged wrongdoing in government bodies, another name has been added to the growing list of RTI activists who have been killed for raising disturbing questions.
The 73rd person to be killed for raising a voice against corruption is Kedar Singh Jindan, who according to agency reports from Himachal Pradesh was first allegedly beaten up and then run over by a vehicle near Bakras village in Sirmaur district on the afternoon of September 8. Jindan was a social activist and an SC/ST rights leader who had also contested the 2017 assembly election in the state on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.
In June, Jindan had claimed at a press conference in Shimla that an RTI application filed by him had revealed that six affluent families in the Bakras panchayat with assets running into crores were wrongfully registered under the below poverty line category.
Reporting this, a local website had also stated that he had alleged forging of records by one Jai Prakash for securing government jobs for his family members. The website stated that Jai Prakash along with another person, Gopal, were among those accused in the case.
Though the police initially thought it be an accident, they later registered a case of murder. Jindan’s family protested with his body and has demanded that the case be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. They were joined in the protest by a large number of locals as well as RTI and social activists.
The protesters charged that there were five people who were involved in the attack on the slain activist and demanded that they all be proceeded against. They also sought security for the family, which has lost its sole earning member, and a job for the victim’s wife, Hem Lata.
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