Bengaluru: For the first time in the state, a Right to Information (RTI) activist was arrested and sent to jail on Wednesday for seeking information regarding a police officer under RTI. The activist, identified as K.H. Ramalinga Reddy, was arrested on charges of causing intentional insult and interruption on an order passed by the information commissioner in a judicial proceeding.
The order had rejected the appeal of the RTI activist seeking information pertaining to a police inspector in K.R. Puram police station. However, the activist alleged that the information commissioner colluded with the police and did not want to divulge the information he had sought.
The arrested RTI activist is the president of Karnataka Brastachara Nirmoolana Vedike, a forum for eradication of corruption in the state. Reddy is currently lodged at the central prison in Parappana Agrahara, after having been remanded to judicial custody until September 9, said a forum member.
However, Reddy alleged that he was only requesting the public servant (information commissioner) L. Krishnamurthy, to transfer his case to another commissioner, instead of rejecting it. There were heated arguments between him and Krishnamurthy and it was the latter who hurled abuses.
The row dates back to February 12, 2014, when Reddy sought information through RTI about a police inspector Sanjeeva Rayappa, who was in charge of K.R. Puram police station. Reddy received a complaint at his forum that the police inspector was corrupt and filed an RTI application before DG-IGP’s office seeking information on the station diary, tour diary, government vehicle logbook used by the inspector, heinous crimes registered by him, B&C reports filed by the inspector, and expenses claimed by him from the government.
Even after 30 days, there was no response, which prompted Reddy to file the first appeal before the DG-IGP authorities on March 15, 2014. But there was no response ever after due time. Reddy then went ahead and filed the second appeal before the Karnataka Information Commission in which the then information commissioner ordered the DG-IGP’s office to furnish the sought information to the appellant and even file a compliance report with KIC that the said information has been furnished to the appellant. The order dated December 23, 2014, was passed by the then information commissioner M.R. Pujar.
Even after the orders were passed, there was no response from the DG-IGP’s office, after which KIC issued summons to both parties and fixed a date for hearing on August 18. During this hearing, the present information commissioner Krishnamurthy rejected Reddy’s appeal stating that he had sought information on different subjects and the words he put up in his query exceeded 150 words.
Meanwhile, A.R.S. Kumar has been named the second accused in the FIR.
