Times of India: Lucknow: Thursday, March 03, 2016.
Officials at
Allahabad group centre of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were shocked to
find that a letter received by an RTI applicant and purportedly written by its
deputy inspector general as a reply to a query, said that "since he was a
Muslim, a religion associated with terrorism, he couldn't be given the
information sought by him due to security reasons".
An internal
inquiry by the Centre found that it did receive the said query in November 2015
about its recruitment process, but its reply sent early last month didn't have
the inflammatory reference. It was inserted later on. In a bid to find out the
person behind this mischief, or an attempt to fan communal hatred, the centre
would lodge an FIR in Allahabad on Thursday.
The incident
relates to an RTI query sought by one Shams Tavrez, a resident of Usiya village
in Ghazipur district about the grounds on which he was not selected for the post
of constable at a recruitment held at the centre. Shams says that a paragraph
in the letter stated that he couldn't be given the documents that he had sought
because he belonged to the Muslim community which is a religion of terrorists.
CRPF DIG DK Tripathi,
who is also the central information officer (CIO) at the centre, says the
original letter issued against the particular RTI query didn't have the
paragaraph in question. "We have come to know about the issue and would
lodge an FIR with the Allahabad police on Thursday in connection with the said
CRPF reply to the RTI query," Tripathi told TOI.
Shams said he
had appeared for recruitment as a constable at the Allahabad centre in 2010 and
was not selected. In December 2012, he moved an RTI query addressed to DG CRPF
seeking details of why he was not selected. "In 2013, I got a reply
stating that I was not selected as I was medically unfit," Shams told TOI.
Thereafter, in November 2015 he sought details of his medical test through an
online RTI query from the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
"In
response to my second query, I got a reply on February 10, 2016 through a
registered post. A part of the letter had this derogatory references about
Muslims," he says. The paragraph in question in the purported RTI response
from the CRPF reads: "In this connection, you are being informed that you
belong to the Muslim community which is a religion of terrorists, hence as per
section 8(1)(Ka) of the RTI Act 2005 we cannot provide you the documents for
security reasons."
DIG Tripathi
said the alleged letter seems to be aimed at tarnishing the image of the CRPF,
or a mischief . "Whatever be the case, we will lodge an FIR in this
connection to find out the truth," he said.
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