RTI has become a weapon of big and small time activists who use it to threaten realtors as well as hawkers in Thane. In one such case, an activist from Thane was held by Thane police for trying to collect hafta in the name of RTI from shopkeepers, hawkers, tea stall owners, etc. This makes him the eighth RTI activist arrested in Thane region since October.
On November 20, Vartaknagar police arrested Mahendrasingh Soni, 41 for extorting money from a shopkeeper in the area. Two months back Soni contacted the shopkeeper and told him that he has some information against his business. “He said he is a journalist and demanded Rs 5,000 to keep quiet or else he would forward the information to the authorities and get his shop closed,” says senior police inspector P C Giridhar, Vartaknagar police station, Thane.
The shopkeeper (does not wish to be named) obliged and paid him the money and bought his silence. However, Soni allegedly kept asking for more money since then. “He demanded a monthly hafta of Rs 5,000 from him again to keep mum,” says he. The shopkeeper did not revert in October to his demands. But Soni continued to pester him and when he again asked for hafta in mid-November, the shopkeeper lodged a police complaint against him last weekend.
“We arrested Soni red-handed on Tuesday when he came to accept the money,” he says. The cops produced him in Thane court which remanded him to police custody till November 26. During the investigation, the cops learned that Soni bothered vada pavwallahs, hawkers, etc., in the area for hafta. “Two more persons have come forward with similar complaints against him. Along with hawkers, he would also threaten government officials of exposing them with the help of RTI,” he says.