Times of India: Motihari: Wednesday, June 20, 2018.
Noted
right-to-information (RTI) activist Rajendra Prasad Singh, 60, was shot dead by
some motorcycle-borne assailants on NH-28 near Mathbanawari village under Pipra
Kothi police station in East Champaran district on Tuesday. Riding his bike,
Rajendra was on his way to Motihari from his native village Mangalapur when the
goons attacked him, killing him on the spot.
Rajendra is
the second RTI activist to be killed in last two months. Earlier in April,
Jayant Kumar of Vaishali district was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen at
Garaul Chowk under Garaul police station. Jayant had reportedly earned the
displeasure of several government officials in the district by seeking
information on various projects.
Rajendra’s
body was brought to Motihari Sadar Hospital for postmortem. Pipra Kothi station
house officer (SHO) Abhishek Kumar Singh said efforts were on to nab the
culprits. Police sources claimed the involvement of some middlemen in his
murder.
After seeking
information, Rajendra had lodged a case against 200 fake beneficiaries of the
old-age pension scheme, following which they were forced to return the money to
the government.
According to
Rajendra’s family sources, four attempts were made on his life during the last
five years but every time he had had a narrow escape. The deceased’s only
daughter Lovely Kumari, 30, alleged that her father, who was a marginal farmer,
was fighting against various irregularities in panchayats, blocks, banks and
other institutions in the district. “The police too were irked by his activism
and he was implicated in several fabricated cases. He was even arrested under
the Arms Act in 2016,” said Lovely.
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