Despite the unsolved murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Satish Shetty, the threatening and hectoring of RTI activists across the State, and especially Pune, continues unabated.
The latest victim is noted Pune-based RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, who was threatened and browbeaten by Congress corporator Kailas Gaikwad in the full glare of municipal officials as he attempted to inspect certain files pertaining to a construction site at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
Earlier in the week, Mr. Kumbhar tried to glean information from files pertaining to a construction site in the Aundh-Pimple Saudagar area in which the corporator had interests under the ‘proactive disclosure’ section 4 (1) of the RTI Act, 2005.
At that time, Mr. Gaikwad, who is also the brother of Pune mayor Dattatrey Gaikwad, stormed in and brazenly threatened Mr. Kumbhar in front of PMC officials for “poking his nose” into affairs ostensibly not of Mr. Kumbhar’s concern.
Despite Mr. Kumbhar calmly telling him that he was a resident of the neighbourhood where the construction was coming up, Mr. Gaikwad menacingly told the RTI activist that the latter ought to know the project was the corporator’s and that he [Mr. Kumbhar] would have to bear the consequences if he attempted to stymie it.
“I was shocked by the violence in his language and the vehemence of his tone,” Mr. Kumbhar told The Hindu , recalling the incident.
The activist later shot off an official complaint to Police Commissioner Satish Mathur describing the corporator’s threat in detail.
In his letter, Mr. Kumbhar requested the Commissioner to take serious note of the complaint in the backdrop of continuous threats to whistle-blowers.
According to Mr. Kumbhar, one of Mr. Gaikwad’s builder acquaintance called him up after the incident urging him to resolve the incident by a ‘friendly’ meeting with the corporator to which he firmly declined.
When questioned about the threat, the corporator said he had already recanted and allegedly remarked he was “unaware that Mr. Kumbhar was an RTI activist.”
Mr. Kumbhar is noted for exposing corruption and financial irregularities in civic bodies and laying bare the builder-politico nexus by his effective use of the RTI Act.
