How to make a whistle-blower howl!
His public-spirited act of exposing a power theft was rewarded with torture in
police custody. Now, police officials say the SHRC file recommending action
against the cops concerned is ‘lost’
DEBI PRASAD SARANGI
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Three years ago, he blew the lid off a power theft being indulged in by his
landlord. Cut to the present, and this whistle-blower has found to his chagrin
how bureaucracy can make a mockery of public-spirited vigilantism.
Thirty-eight-year-old T Christy has been running from pillar to post to see
that disciplinary action is taken against two policemen who allegedly colluded
with his landlord and tortured him. But as so often happens within the
corridors of officialdom, the file pertaining to his case is apparently ‘lost’.
According to Christy, his former landlord Anthony was supplying water to nearly
30 of his tenants by using the power meant for agricultural purposes (for which
the tariff is low) and collecting money from them. “The particular pole inside
his Rosary Farm in Arogyapa Layout was allotted to him for agricultural
purposes. BESCOM charges a minimum amount in such cases, but Anthony had taken
the law for granted. He was supplying water to nearly 30 tenants and making a
lot of money, in the process causing a loss to BESCOM. How can someone use the
free electricity meant for agricultural purposes either for domestic or
commercial use?” said Christy.
FALSE CASE
He complained to the vigilance unit of BESCOM, which found Anthony guilty of
misusing the power supplied. A fine of Rs 12,000 was slapped on the landlord.
“By that time, I had shifted to another house in Kempapura. Anthony and his
brothers framed me in a false extortion case and on Feb 6, 2008, I was arrested
by the Yelahanka police and taken to the station in a vehicle provided by
Anthony. Sub-Inspector Shankarappa pressured me to keep quiet, saying he would
get me Rs 50,000 from Anthony. He even threatened to kill me. I was beaten up
by him and a constable, Narayanaswamy, and was released after four hours. They
did not even bother to show me a copy of the complaint filed against me,”
Christy said.
Christy approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), which found the
two policemen guilty of acting at the behest of Anthony. The rights panel
recommended exemplary action against the cops in a letter to the police
commissioner in September 2008. Surprisingly, the file is missing from the
police commissioner’s office and the accused cops are yet to face any action.”I
have been making the rounds of the police commissioner’s office for the last
five months, but the officials there keep saying they have to search for the
file,” he said.
A desperate Christy called up joint commissioner Alok Kumar on Friday to
enquire about the file, but did not get a positive response. He now plans to
approach the SHRC to have the papers pertaining to his case sent once again to
the police chief’s office.
Penalised, but do they care?
When T Christy was not told by the local police why he had been detained, he
filed an RTI application with the police commissioner’s office. But there was
no response forthcoming.That prompted him to shoot off another RTI application
for details of officials who have been penalised for failing to furnish
information on time. The following is the gist of the reply from the Karnataka
Information Commission:
A total of 103 officials were found guilty for not responding to RTI queries
within the stipulated 30 days.
The penalty collected from such officials totalled Rs 3.97 lakh between August
2006 and May 2009.
The maximum penalty collected from individual officials was Rs 25,000, while
the minimum amount was Rs 250.
