'Harassment' drives RTI activist to suicide

Right to information and right to life, both seem to have been casualties of corruption and abuse of power in Nanded district last week.
The police are investigating the possible role of a health department official in pushing a young right-to-information activist from Mukhed, some 75 km from Nanded, to suicide.Jaipal Chavan, a government hospital superintendent, was named in the suicide note of Shivam Jankuatar (24) for having brought the activist “social shame by lodging a false criminal complaint against me”. On Wednesday morning Jankuatar handed the note to people at the local taluka office and consumed poison on the premises. The note maintains that Chavan had lodged a false case because Jankutuar was attempting to expose corruption by asking the official for copies of expenditure bills under the Right to Information Act. On September 22 the local police had booked Jankutuar for extortion after receiving a complaint from Chavan. State Information Commissioner Suresh Joshi said a report had been sought on the incident from authorities in Nanded, which is about 650 km from the city. SP Singhal said the extreme step of suicide was mysterious, and the police were also inquiring into the kind of information Jankutuar had sought