The
Statesman: Shimla: Saturday, September 15, 2018.
The
complaints on inclusion of influential persons in Below Poverty Line (BPL) list
and against atrocities on people of Schedule Caste (SC) communities proved
costly to Kedar Singh Jindan, an RTI activist from Shillai area of Sirmaur
district.
Superintendent
of Police, Sirmaur, Rohit Malpani said the three accused who had been arrested
confessed to their crime of killing the RTI activist for taking up the cases of
SCs.
“The
accused told the police that they had murdered Jindan over his complaints on
BPL list and under SC/ST,” Malpani told The Statesman.
Police
sources said Jindan was called by the three accused Gopal, Jai Prakash and
Karam Singh for compromise over the cases by him on 7 September.
However,
Jindan refused to agree to their demands of taking back his complaints,
resulting in heated exchange between them.
The
RTI activist was allegedly brutally thrashed with sticks by the accused after
which he was crushed to death under a Scorpio car.
Jindan
was pursuing a case against Jai Prakash, the UP Pradhan of Bakras panchayat,
for allegedly including his brother’s family in BPL list due to which he had
got a job in government sector.
In
addition, some other persons of the area who own cars and pucca houses, were
also included in the list while the poor people from weaker sections and SC
community were left out.
This
had resulted in poor being deprived of benefits of government schemes and the
rich and influential not only got benefit of the welfare schemes but also
enabled them in getting government jobs.
Sources
said Jai Prakash had reportedly called him to settle the case but when Jindan
refused to toe their line, he was murdered in cold blood.
Such
was the influence of the accused that even the five witnesses of the crime had
refused to give their statements to the police as they fear that they might be
tempered with.
This
is despite the fact that the government had constituted a Special Investigation
Team (SIT) to probe and the Director General of Police S R Mardi too had
visited Sirmaur district to take stock of the situation.
The
witnesses are now being provided with police security for safety and they are
still adamant on their demand of recording their statement in front of
magistrate or CBI.
In
fact, the crime had also laid bare the caste divide in remote and backward
Shillai region as after the crime, Rajput Sabha had expressed their support for
the accused and had requested the police to register a case of accident and not
of murder against the accused.
Around
60-70 members had gathered outside SP office in Shillai and had also submitted
memorandum to SP in support of their demands which included removal of a case
under SC/ST Act against the accused.
A
resident of Bakras Panchayat in Shillai area, Jindan was fighting for the
rights of poor and SCs of the area and he had also contested assembly elections
on Bahujan Samajwadi Party ticket in 2007, 2012 and in 2017.