The Indian Feed: Bihar: Wednesday,
12 August 2020.
“My son was framed because I
had sought paddy procurement details… How can police declare my minor son an
adult? Can anyone believe the police story of a boy returning from an
examination center with a pistol?”
A Bihar RTI activist has
been running from pillar to post, saying his minor son was framed and shown as
an adult by police who arrested him five months ago and charged him in an Arms
Act case with two others. His son has been in Buxar jail ever since.
As said to The Indian
Express, the activist’s son had appeared for a paper for the Class X
examination on February 29. After giving his exams, he took a ride along with
two men from his village on a motorcycle. This vehicle was stopped by police in
Buxar’s Rajpur area, who claimed that a pistol was recovered from the son and
live cartridge from the other two.
While the men were released
on bail later, his son, the activist says, is still behind bars. He says his
son secured an overall of 83 percent marks in the five papers he took before
his arrest he still had one paper to take. The boy, according to his school
records, was born in April 2006.
The newspaper stated that
the activist had filed several applications under the RTI act to uncover
alleged irregularities under Bihar government schemes, paddy procurement, and
MGNREGA. He mentioned that after his RTI applications revealed several
irregularities in road construction and the MGNREGA, local panchayat
functionaries “framed” him in an SC/ST Act case, but he got a “clean chit”.
“They then hatched a conspiracy to trap my innocent son,” he said.
The RTI activist claimed
that he had complained to Bihar’s Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey
before the lockdown began.
“We were not able to take up
the matter because of the constant lockdown and closure of court. The local
police did nothing to rectify the mistake of declaring the boy an adult. We
have approached the Juvenile Justice Board and will be submitting a letter from
the school stating his correct date of birth,” said the activist’s lawyer,
Lalan Pandey to The Indian Express.
Police have no explanation
of why or how the Class X student was declared an adult and sent to jail.
Rajpur police station ASI Mahesh Prasad Singh, the complainant in the case,
told The Indian Express: “I have little role to play in this. I did what I was
asked to do”.
Bihar DGP Pandey said that
he had taken “serious note” and was getting it “thoroughly investigated. He
acknowledged that the father had approached him before lockdown, which he had
then referred to Buxar Superintendent of Police. “I am seeking an update.”
Buxar SP Upendra Nath Verma
told The Indian Express: “I have asked the local police station to look into
the matter of how a minor was shown as an adult and the circumstances in which
a teenaged boy is facing a case. I am also going to meet the boy’s father.”
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