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Odisha RTI activist, BJP leader critical after bomb attack
Sarbeswar Behura was returning home in a four-wheeler at around 9 pm when two bike-borne men accosted him at Imamnagar village and hurled bombs at him.
A Right-to-Information (RTI) activist and BJP leader of Odisha’s Jajpur district was critically injured on Saturday evening when two miscreants hurled bombs at the vehicle he was travelling in.
Sarbeswar Behura was returning home along with one Sushant Behera from Toaramuha village in a four-wheeler at around 9 pm when two bike-borne men accosted him at Imamnagar village and hurled bombs at him. The attack left him and his co-passenger seriously injured. Behura has been moved to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack city.
Behura was known for his RTI activism in the district and had become an eyesore of several influential people due to his RTI applications that uncovered several irregularities in government schemes. After receiving information, the police reached the spot and sent the injured to the hospital.
Earlier in January this year, Odisha Lokayukta had asked the vigilance department to probe whether Biju Janata Dal MLA Pranab Balbantray and other government officials conspired to blow up an irrigation embankment with dynamites that inundated 4,000 hectares of standing paddy crop in seven gram panchayats of Jajpur district after Behura lodged a complaint.
In his complaint, Behura had alleged that during the construction work of the embankment, the MLA in collusion with a junior engineer took a huge amount of money from the contractor following which the contractor used sub-standard material in the construction work. He alleged that to cover up the sub-standard work, the MLA and the engineer hired miscreants to cause breaches in the embankment by using dynamites to give an impression that the embankment was washed away because of the strong current of floodwater.
BJP state general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar condemned the attack on Sarbeswar Behura and sought the DGP’s intervention to arrest the culprits.
In February last year, Ranjan Kumar Das, a 35-year-old RTI activist of Kendrapara district, known for filing multiple RTI applications into several irregularities, was found dead in suspicious circumstances about 2 kilometres from his home. Das’s body was recovered with multiple injuries on the face, along with his motorcycle, in a ditch by the road.
In December 2019, a 48-year-old RTI activist of Kandhamal district was shot dead by unidentified persons in front of his home. RTI activist Abhimanyu Panda was standing in front of his home when two bike-borne miscreants came and fired a bullet at him.
Pradeep Pradhan, leading RTI activist and convener of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhiyan, a forum of RTI activists, said RTI activists in Odisha are facing harassment and threats to family members over their RTI applications. “In the last 5 years, at least 40 RTI activists in the state have been attacked after their vested interests were exposed by the RTI activists. The RTI activists are harassed, tortured and mercilessly beaten up by powerful people as police do not take action on their complaints. Despite several complaints to higher authorities for an immediate investigation into FIRs lodged by RTI activists and ensuring their protection, the state government has not taken any steps in this regard,” said Pradhan.
In 2017, Suresh Lenka, an RTI activist from Jagatsinghpur district faced a brutal attack after his RTI applications revealed that ₹1 lakh was allegedly misappropriated by the local Sarpanch and Panchayat Executive officer from NREGA fund. His RTI activism also uncovered huge irregularities in the distribution of houses under Biju Pucca Yojana and Indira Awas Yojana.
In January 2015, Krupasindhu Sahu, an RTI activist of Nachhinga village in Cuttack district was murdered allegedly for procuring information that exposed corruption and financial misappropriation in the Bringing 2nd Green Revolution in East India (BGREI) funds. Sahu was killed a month after the murder of another RTI activist Ganesh Chandra Panda from Rangeilunda village of Ganjam district, over exposing corruption in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme.
