VERY SAD, RTI ACTIVITIST SHOULD JOIN TO GET ACCUSED BOOKED. S.K.KAPOOR --- On Wed, 4/8/09, veeresh bellur <[email protected]> wrote:
From: veeresh bellur <[email protected]> Subject: [rti_india] RTI CLAIMS FIRST VICTIM IN KARNATAKA To: "rti india" <[email protected]>, "indiarti indiarti" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 1:20 PM RTI Activists strongly condemn the death of Sri. Venkatesh, an RTI Activist who was found dead in a mysterious condition on the night of 6 April 2009. An article appeared on 8th April 2009 edition of Bangalore Mirror is reproduced below. Accident or murder? RTI activist found bleeding near Jnana Bharati dies of his wounds Debi Prasad Sarangi Posted On Wednesday, April 08, 2009 at 12:44:16 AM In a shocking incident, an RTI activist who had succeeded in saving government property worth crores of rupees from being encroached by land sharks died under mysterious circumstances near Bangalore University’s Jnana Bharathi campus on Monday night. The man has been identified as 48-year-old Venkatesh, a resident of Hosahalli in Vijayanagar. He was found lying near Papireddypalya Circle around 9 pm with injuries on the head. Passers-by, who saw him bleeding, shifted him to a private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. As Venkatesh and his two-wheeler were found on the road in Kamakshipalya traffic limits, the traffic cops suspected him to be a victim of a road accident. But the bike did not have any damage. His body was sent to Victoria Hospital for autopsy and that is where the case took an intriguing turn. The doctors who conducted the post mortem refused to buy the police theory of road accident and said the death had been caused because of an assault. “There were two L-shaped injury marks on the back of his head and it suggested that sharp-edged weapons had been used to attack him. These were deep-cut injuries,” said sources in Victoria Hospital. Though the hospital is yet to give its report, the preliminary observations and inferences have not only shocked the family but have also left the police head honchos baffled. “It looks like a killing for vengeance, we will investigate further,” a police officer said. The officer who is reconstructing the sequence of events that resulted in murder said: “Venkatesh was returning on his two-wheeler after collecting rent from his tenant when he was intercepted by the gang. They assaulted him and escaped. While he was lying on the road, two persons shifted him to Hosmat.” The police have now begun to dig deep into Venkatesh’s activities and the threats he had received. According to close friends of Venkatesh, one of the motives behind his murder could be crusade against land sharks. “He was using RTI to ferret information pertaining to encroachments and was filing cases against land sharks in the courts and Lok Ayukta’s office. This had angered a lot of people,” one of his friends said. In fact, sometime ago he had made a representation to the Jnana Bharathi police stating that there was a threat to his life. Six months ago, Venkatesh had been instrumental in saving BDA property worth Rs 35 crore. He had obtained documents from BDA by applying the RTI Act to prove the actual ownership. Subsequently, the property was recovered. Similarly, he was trying to save a huge tract of land near Srigandhakaval from being occupied by private parties. (Inputs from Manjunath Sharma) B.H. VEERESHA MAHITHI HAKKU ADHYAYANA KENDRA 54, 17TH CROSS, M C LAYOUT VIJAYANAGAR, BANGALORE 560 040 TEL.NO. 9448704693 Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger. yahoo.com/ invite/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
