Chandra Mohan Sharma: His RTIs 'did not please everyone'

Times of India: Noida: Saturday, 03 May 2014.

In his fight against corruption, Chandra Mohan Sharma was on a roll. He had filed 300 RTI applications in his incessant bid to track down malpractices in the system. It's these convictions that led him to join the Aam Aadmi Party and, before that, the Anna Hazare movement. His two children, daughter Chavi (10) and son Devansh (9), were born on January 26 and August 15, respectively.

On Thursday, on a desolate, nondescript road in Greater Noida, his crusade came to an end as the 38-year-old was found dead at the wheels of his car, both him and the vehicle charred. Police believe the car caught fire and Sharma's death was an accident but his family is convinced it wasn't so.

Sharma, his wife says, was always fighting for what is right. That didn't please everyone. "His RTIs were related to encroachments on government land. He would seek information on costs for building government roads, the functioning of residents' welfare associations, allotment of land by the government and anything he believed had a ring of corruption around it," said Anoop Khanna, an AAP member in Noida. "He was one of the first people to join Anna Hazare and later AAP."

Neighbours and tenants remembered Sharma as someone who was "always helpful" and "raring to fight and go to any lengths for what was right". "He was always very excited about helping people. Today is a sad day as we have lost a good human being," said the Sharmas' neighbour, a young BTech student.

On Thursday night, the children spoke to their father at 10.30pm and he had promised to bring them ice-cream and juice. Sharma's wife Savita believed he was working overtime. She tried calling him since 11.15pm but his phone was repeatedly unreachable. "Little did I know that he was just a few meters away," said the law graduate who fights for women's' rights.

Sharma was employed with a leading automobile manufacturing company in the maintenance department and had been living in Greater Noida for more than 12 years. His father lives in Gurgaon. "Why did my son have to die so young and in such a cruel manner?" he said, sitting outside the post mortem house. "We hope the people responsible for his death are punished by law," added his brother-in-law, Videsh Kumar.