Bihar RTI activist’s murder: CCTV footages raise hope about arrest of killers; MLA blames cops

PATNA: The special investigation team (SIT) probing the murder of RTI activist Rajendra Singh in Bihar’s East Champaran district has got hold of three CCTV footages that have raised hope about the arrest of his killers. Singh, who had exposed a number of scams in various government schemes in northern Bihar, was shot dead from close range by unidentified bike-borne assailants near Math Banwari Chowk under Piprakothi police station on Tuesday.

“In footage captured by CCTV cameras at three locations, two men on a bike are seen following Singh from Kuchery Chowk in Motihari up to the vicinity of the spot where he was shot dead. We are working on these clues apart from some other leads,” said a police official in the SIT to The New Indian Express on Friday.

SIT sources said the faces of the two men on the bike are clear enough in the CCTV footage for their identification. The RTI activist was shot dead while returning home on his bike after meeting his lawyers at the court in Motihari.

Many of the irregularities in the functioning of government schemes that Singh had unearthed through the RTI route had resulted in registration of FIRs. The day he was killed, Singh was to appear as a witness in a fraud case against the former mukhiya of Bariaria-Rajpur panchayat, said sources.

Raju Tiwary, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MLA from Govindganj, on Friday accused police and administrative officials in East Champaran of collusion in Singh’s murder. The activist had become too much of an obstacle for corruption in government schemes in the district, he said.

“There was an effort to kill the RTI activist in a fake accident with a car last year. Police seized the car and a mobile phone from the spot, but took no action to arrest the killers. It proves police and local officials gave protection to Singh’s killers,” said Tiwary. SIT officials who visited Singh’s house took in possession his personal diary, which is expected to throw light on the enmities he had developed due to his anti-corruption work. Five people have been booked for his murder, including his brother, a nephew and a former mukhiya, Om Prakash Kumar alias Subhash Yadav.

Courtesy: Express News Service