RTI activist assaulted in Bihar

A Right to Information (RTI) activist was assaulted by government officials in Bihar’s Rohtas district after he sought information about illegal mining, police said Thursday.

Nabi Ahmad, in his mid-60s, was assaulted by an executive engineer, assistant engineer and three contractors of the water resources department in Dehri-On-Sone, a town in Rohtas, about 150 km from here.

“I was attacked and assaulted. My crime was that I sought information from the executive engineer about illegal mining on the department’s land,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad said that after he sought information about illegal mining under the RTI Act, the executive engineer and other officials of the department were angry at his bid to expose their involvement.

“They threatened me for filing an RTI petition to seek information about illegal mining,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad has lodged a case against the accused. “An FIR ((First Information Report) was registered after I met the district superintendent of police,” he said.

During the last one year, nearly a dozen RTI activists were attacked, assaulted and harassed by officials across Bihar. Last December, an RTI activist, Ram Vilas Singh was shot dead in Lakhisarai district.