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RTI activist shot dead in Bihar’s East Champaran: Police
The assailants fired multiple rounds at the activist, Vipin Agrawal, 46, from a close range near Harshidih while he was returning home from the local block office, officials said.
An RTI activist, who exposed several cases of land encroachment, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Bihar’s East Champaran district on Friday, officials said.
The assailants fired multiple rounds at the activist, Vipin Agrawal, 46, from a close range near Harshidih while he was returning home from the local block office, officials said.
“Locals saw him lying in a pool of blood on the road. He was rushed to primary health centre (PHC) and was referred to the Sadar Hospital in Motihari where he was declared brought dead,” Harshidih police station house officer (SHO) Pramod Paswan said.
“We are conducting raids to arrest the accused,” the SHO added.
“A special investigation team has been formed under SDPO Areraj to probe the matter and arrest the assailants,” Navin Chand Jha, East Champaran superintendent of police, said.
The Areraj (35km west from Motihari, headquarters of East Champaran district) subdivisional police officer (SDPO), Abhinav Dhuman, said, “The RTI activist sustained four bullet injuries. We are looking at all angles.”
Agrawal, who was working as an RTI activist since 2009,was attacked last year as well and had approached the police seeking protection, his father, Vijay Agrawal, said.
“Miscreants attacked and ransacked our house on February 16, 2020. His wife was dragged on the road in broad daylight,” Vijay Agrawal said. No arrests were made in the case, he said.
“He had sued many people in this regard, but no one was arrested. We applied for protection several times, to no avail,” he added.
Jha said, “Will see if he had sought protection.”
Vipin exposed illegal encroachment on eight acres of land worth crores in the Harshidih area, his father said. “He fought a long battle to remove land encroachment in and around Harshidih area.”
“In the 2020, a house situated on encroached land in Dhankhariya near Harshidih was demolished by the administration. Later, a case was filed with the Lokayukta in Patna, a petrol pump operating on encroached land was also sealed. Cases were also filed over a cold storage and residential house built on the encroached land,” he said.
The cases were filed against the influential political leaders of the area. There were also attempts to implicate Agrawal in a false murder case, Agarwal’s father said adding that his RTI activist son felt that he could be murdered or implicated in false case for his exposing the land encroachment cases by influential people.
“No help has come from any quarters,” said Vijay Agrawal.
He filed a complaint in this regard against nearly 100 people at the subdivisional court at Areraj, said Vijay Agrawal.
