The Wire: New Delhi: Sunday,
09 August 2020.
The
14-year-old son of a right to information activist has allegedly been arrested
as an adult under the Arms Act and kept in jail for five months in Buxar,
Indian Express reported on Saturday.
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. “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 centre with a
pistol,” he told the Indian Express.
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
activist said that his 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, the activist’s son is still behind bars.
His son had scored 83% in the paper that he gave before being arrested – and
had one more exam to give.
The RTI
activist claimed that he had complained to Bihar’s Director General of Police
Gupteshwar Pandey before the lockdown began. The Express reported that the boy,
as per his school records, was born in April 2006.
During
the lockdown, it was impossible to avail legal remedies due to the closure of
courts. “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.
When the
Indian Express contacted the complainant in the case, Rajpur police station’s
ASI Mahesh Prasad Singh, he said, “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.”
Stating
he would soon meet the father, Buxar SP Upendra Nath Verma told Express that he
has “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”.
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