DNA:
Mumbai: Monday, 08 February 2016.
Ujwala
Baravkar, widow of Vilas Baravkar, an RTI activist who committed suicide in
2014, wants investigation into her husband's suicide scrapped. Reason? Mental,
physical, financial and social harassment that she and her family are facing
due to the way the probe is being conducted.
Baravkar
committed suicide in his village Chakan, leaving behind a suicide note. In the
suicide note, written on a Rs 100 stamp paper, he blamed senior police
officers, politicians and some other people for driving him to end his life.
Baravkar was
involved in a series of anti-corruption activities by using RTI and was also
member of several organisations. In a letter marked to the home minister,
senior officers in Pune district, under whose jurisdiction Chakan comes, Ujwala
stated that the police had been constantly asking for reasons behind his
suicide.
This, she
alleged, had been done with several people who were known to her husband. The
police were doing this in a way that it was creating further problem. She even
went on to state that RTI applications seeking progress of the investigation
into her husband's suicide were not being entertained. In view of all this, the
investigation be scrapped, she urged. When dna contacted Ujwala, she refused to
talk.
"The
police should talk properly to family members of those who are deceased or have
committed suicide. In this case, he left a suicide note. This kind of a letter
only shows that the investigation is not proceeding in the right direction.
People file RTI applications and it is only then that the police start
investigation," said Vijay Kumbhar, an RTI activist from Pune.
Jay Jadhav,
superintendent of police, Pune Rural, was not available for comment despite
repeated attempts. Mobile number of G Gosavi, senior police inspector of
Chakan, was switched off.
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