Times
of India: Dehradun: Wednesday, 02 September 2015.
Controversy
around the suspicious death of RTI activist Rajesh Suri took a serious turn on
Tuesday when the viscera report confirmed that he had been poisoned.
Taking the
seriousness of the matter into account, DGP BS Sidhu immediately constituted a
Special Investigation Team (SIT), to be headed by SP (city) Ajay Singh, to
probe the case and furnish the findings at the earliest.
Suri, who was
also an advocate, had taken up several alleged land scam cases in Uttarakhand.
It was after attending a related hearing on November 30, 2014 in the Nainital
high court, when he was returning to Dehradun by train, that he felt some sort
of uneasiness. He died soon after.
In 2012, Suri
had prepared a video clip featuring himself in which he claimed there was
threat to his life. He had even revealed some names "who were to be held
responsible'' if he was indeed murdered.
After his
death, his campaign was taken forward by his sister Rita Suri, who contacted
all senior police officials and lodged a complaint at Kotwali police station
against four persons - Divya Jain, Sudhir Jain, Ravikant Kiryana and Satendra.
In her complaint on December 5, 2014, she had accused the four of murdering her
brother.
As Rita
pursued the matter, the viscera was sent to a forensic lab in Rudrapur for a
detailed examination. The report, now out, confirmed her worst fears and said
Suri had been administered poison.
"On
September 9, 2014, Suri had received a threat call. The callers told him to
withdraw all the cases of land fraud that he was fighting," Rita told TOI.
"They said that he would be eliminated if he failed to do as he was told.
Some days later my brother was killed. When I said this earlier, no one
believed me."
Rita added
that it was due to the efforts of her brother that some important cases
connected to land fraud in Uttarakhand were right now in the Nainital high
court. "He was the man who exposed the 7,000-bigha Angelia House land scam
and the 700-bigha fraud of Daulat Ram Trust. Suri had been threatened on
several occasions but he did not care about it and continued his crusade
against corruption. After him, I have taken up that responsibility and will not
give up till the time justice is done and the accused are placed behind
bars," she added.
DGP Sidhu
said, "It has become an extremely serious matter after the viscera report
confirmed that Suri had indeed been poisoned." He pointed out that a high-level
SIT unit to be headed by SP Ajay Singh would probe the matter. "The other
members of the team would soon be decided. This is a very important matter for
us and instructions have been given to work out the case at the earliest,"
added the top police officer.
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