Times of India: New Delhi: Wednesday, December 16, 2015.
The
government has refused to divulge information related to gangster Chhota
Rajan's fake passport on the plea that the information is "personal''. It
has also remained mum on first information report against CBI officials who may
have assisted the don in getting the forged document.
RTI activist
Venkatesh Nayak had asked the ministry of external affairs (MEA) for records
related to the fake passport G9273860 in the name of Mohan Kumar used by Chhota
Rajan to travel to Bali where he was nabbed.
The MEA
invoked section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act to reject the request holding that it
was "personal information" and also cited a Delhi High Court judgment
in support of its rejection. The Delhi HC had overturned an order of the
Central Information Commission to disclose certain information relating to an
individual's passport citing absence of public interest.
"To cite
this judgment in order to protect the disclosure of information relating to a
fake passport is a misinterpretation of the law indeed. It is not clear whose
privacy MEA wants to protect - the fake individual in whose name the passport
was issued or the individual who used the fake passport,'' Nayak said.
His second
RTI application sought a copy of the FIR filed under the provisions of the
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998 in relation to the issuance of the fake
passport. "The CBI has not bothered to reply to this request till date
although more than 30 days have lapsed,'' Nayak added. The CBI had booked
"unknown officials'' in the fake passport case.
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