Misbehavior with RTI Activists

Subject: Need your advice and suggestion to restore my dignity and
self-respect

Dear Friends

On 14th of February 2011, I along with five others had been to Thakur munda
Police station, Mayurbhanj,  Odisha to collect some information as per the
section 4(1b) of the Right to Information Act 2005. Not only we were denied
the information but also severely humiliated by the Officer in-Charge (OIC)
of Thakurmunda  police station. The details are given below.

We, the following signatories, volunteers and RTI activists belonging to
Mayurbhanj district bring to your kind notice the following complaint
seeking your urgent intervention and remedial justice.

1)  That on 14.2.2011, we visited Thakurmunda Police Station to seek some
information, which are supposed to have been proactively disclosed and kept
ready for public inspection with effect from the 12th October 2005 as
mandated under Section 4 of Right to Information Act 2005. On reaching
there, we found the gate of Police Station closed. We informed the gate
keeper about the purpose of our visit. Requesting us to wait, she went
inside to consult the OIC and after a few moments she returned and opened
the gate  to ensure our entry to the  premises of the Police Station. We
went straight to meet Mr. Bhagawan  Jena, OIC and appraised him about the
purpose of our visit i.e.,  to get  some proactively disclosed information
under Section 4 of the RTI Act. The OIC suddenly got irritated and shouted
at us saying that no information was available in his office and asked us to
get out. We returned back from there in silence and empty handed.

2)  Then, when we were on the way back, a police jeep carrying SOG Jawans
reached  at us  and asked us  to  visit the police station again.The said
jeep carried us also to the police station and the Jawans put us
before the OIC, who immediately started hurling abusive words at us. When we
enquired to know about the reason of his misbehaviour, Mr. Jena suddenly
became furious and scolded us in an aggessive manner saying “bloody
nonsense, you are bloody Maoists, I will teach you a lesson” and the like.
Then he used these very words like “sala besi dekhei hauchha, netagiri
dekhauchha” For one hour at a stretch he continued his unruly and abusive
gestures and utterances against us. We were not allowed  to open our
mouth.We also could not understand why he dealth with us so savagely.



3)  When the OIC was at the peak of his infuriated rage against the group of
RTI users, Mr. Pradip Pradhan a prominent RTI Activist fromBhuaneswar and a
Trainer cum Resource Person on RTI reached the Police
Station accompanied by Mr. Jyotiram  Dash of jagatsinghpur and Mr. Brahmanad
Swain of Thakurmunda. When Mr. Pradip Pradhan was about to sit on a vacant
chair, the OIC Mr. Jena started abusing him with vulgar language. His words
were “You are a bloody nonsense; Who are you  to sit here? Is it decent to
sit before a police officer without permission? What is your academic
qualification? How dare you to sit before me like this? When Mr. Pradip
Pradhan started explaining him about the purpose of the visit  and asked him
to know about the arrangements made in the Police Station to provide the
information under RTI Act, the OIC irritatedly retorted, ‘Why shall we
provide the information? It is SP office, which should provide the
information? Who are you to ask for information? and so on and so forth. The
OIC also meted out similar kind of unruly misbehavour to Jyotiram Dash  and
Brahmanand Swain using abusive words and scolding them. The OIC also called
the SOG Jawans  to heckle Jyotiram Dash, but Mr.Dash vehemently protested
against it. Still one of the SOG Jawans physically  assaulted Jyotiram.
After scolding and threatening the RTI activists for abut an hour to his
fill, Mr.Jena the OIC’ asked us to leave the Police Station.



4)  The act of unruly misbehaviour by the OIC Thakurmunda towards the RTI
activists has  badly damaged our sense of dignity and self-respect as
citizens of India and also instilled into us a very scary feeling of fear,
threat and insecurity amongst us about our local police and police station.
We still continue to harbour an anxiety that  our life may be endangered by
the above Police Officer at any moment our of his deeply ingrained malice
and hatred against the cause of RTI and RTI activists.



5)  That we had recently come to know from the newspapers that the DG Orissa
Police issued a circular instructing all the Police Stations to put in place
Public Information Officers so as to provide information to the
public directly, and the Orissa High Court also closed the concerned PIL
following the apprisal to the Court by the State Government that the above
mentioned new arrangement has already been put in place and consequently the
members of the public are now in a position to avail the information under
RTI Act from each Police Station directly. But the way Mr.Jena, OIC
Thakurmunda misbehaved with RTI activists and flatly denied to provide
information to the visiting RTI users shows that he has nakedly violated the
instruction of DG Orissa Police and deserves therefore strong penal action
rom the Departmental authorities.

So, we request you to enquire into the matter and take appropriate
disciplinary action against the OIC Thakurmunda and ensure proper
arrangement to be put in place in the said Police Station to comply with the
request for information either under Section 4 or Section 6 of RTI Act 2005.

Thanking
Yours sincerely

Jyotiram Dash

At/Po..Puran

Dist..Jagatsinghpur

M-7894990463,  8895481388