Times of India: Lucknow: Thursday, February 07, 2013.
The birth
data of lakhs of people from 1987 till date which, on Tuesday, was said to be
'missing' from the record room of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), was
recovered overnight. It happened after Muncipal Commissioner RK Singh took
serious view of the lapse and ordered an inquiry. The records included the
birth certificate of Gaurav Shukla, prime accused in eight year old Aashiana
gang-rape case.
The matter of
'missing records' came to light when victim's father came to know that Gaurav's
elder brother Mukesh Shukla, a former corporator, had filed an RTI application
on January 30, querying whether the birth certificate of Gaurav was issued by
the LMC or not. On February 4, the LMC replied that 'files since 1987 were not
available in the record room'. Gaurav's date of birth is March 14, 1987.
Victim's father feared that the accused can use the RTI reply to twist the case
in the court. Hence, he along with All India Democratic Women's Association
state secretary Madhu Garg informed the commissioner about the development.
The
commissioner summoned officers and employees concerned, ordered an inquiry and
threatened to lodge an FIR. As a result, the files 'surfaced' overnight. The
LMC staff gave excuse that the files were not in the record room but in the
health department. The excuse gave credence to the apprehension of victim's
father that the RTI reply given by LMC to Gaurav's brother can be misused and
records can be fudged. However, there was also a section of LMC employees which
was sympathetic towards victim's father, who is a petty scrap dealer. As
pressure started mounting, the staff concerned 'recovered' the files within 24
hours.
On Wednesday,
when victim's father and social activists went to meet the commissioner again,
they were shown the file (book number 302, page 90) having birth certificate of
Gaurav. On the basis of this certificate, the Juvenile Justice Board had
recently declared Gaurav an adult after eight years of legal battle. When
contacted, the commissioner said that the records are safe. Interestingly, the
reply given by the LMC to the RTI filed by Gaurav's kin was drafted carefully -
data not available in record room. This can be interpreted in two ways - first,
records are not available at all and second, records are in LMC but not in the
record room.
The Aashiana
gang-rape case occurred on May 2, 2005, when six youth, including Gaurav
Shukla, allegedly abducted a 13-year-old girl, tortured and brutally raped her
before dumping on the roadside to die. Five out of six accused have been
convicted in the lower courts. Gaurav's trial could not start for almost eight
years due to legal dispute over his age. Gaurav is also nephew of
mafia-turned-politician Aruna Shankar Shukla, who is Samajwadi Party's
candidate from Unnao for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. However, Shukla had stated
in a press release issued sometime back that he has not been in touch with
Gaurav's family for the last 20 years.
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