Police are also looking into the allegations of RTI activist Rajendra Singh’s wife against his brother and nephew. (Representational use only)
East Champaran police arrested a sharpshooter on Saturday evening in connection with the June 19 murder of RTI activist Rajendra Singh. The 60-year-old activist was shot dead at Piprakothi while returning on his motorcycle to his Rajpur village under Samgrampur police station.
Areraj deputy superintendent of police Ajay Mishra told The Indian Express: “We have arrested sharpshooter Rana Thakur, a resident of Mufassil. Rana told us he was hired by a former mukhiya Om Prakash a.k.a Subhash Yadav, whose malpractices in contract teachers’ appointment was exposed by the RTI activist”.
Yadav, one of the accused in the case, has been on the run along with Singh’s brother Satendra Singh and nephew Sudhanshu Kumar. The police have also been looking for two former PDS dealers Pramod Singh and Ajay Singh in the case.
The DSP said that though the sharpshooter had named Subhash Yadav, who had illegally appointed his wife and brother-in-law as contract teachers in 2008, they are also looking into the allegations of Singh’s wife against Satendra and Sudhanshu. The police are trying to ascertain whether Singh’s brother and nephew had been used by his enemies. The two had been involved in a dispute over their ancestral property worth over Rs 2.5 crore.
Singh’s wife, Braj Kishori, also said in the FIR that her husband would often say Subhash Yadav could get him killed. All five accused named in the case have been absconding.
Bihar’s leading RTI activist Shiv Prakash Rai said: “We demand speedy trial in the case. Since 2008, 13 RTI activists had been killed. This shows that the RTI activists not being safe. Even I have faced false cases and threats”.