Congress' stir against arrest of Uttar Pradesh RTI activist

Lucknow, Sep 27 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) is organising a statewide stir to protest the arrest of a Right to Information (RTI) activist, party officials said Saturday.

Shailendra Singh, chairman of Congress Task Force on RTI, was arrested here Friday on the charges of misbehaving with senior officials of the State Information Commission and damaging government property.

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'A series of protests is being carried out at all the district headquarters across the state. The party activists, in various districts, have turned up in huge numbers to participate in the stage-in,' Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told IANS.

'We demand immediate release of Shailendra, who was continuously making effort to expose corruption in government departments,' he added.

Singh has been filing RTI applications to know about the government initiated projects.

The Congress alleges the police machinery was being used to settle political scores. The party had threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if he was not released immediately.

He was a provincial police service officer before he resigned as deputy superintendent of police in 2004 to join the Congress party.

Singh had gone to meet the acting Chief Information Commissioner Gyanendra Sharma Thursday afternoon, a day before he was arrested.

Singh has been booked under Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and a case has been registered at the Hazratganj police station.

'The FIR was registered on a complaint by a senior official of the CIC office and we arrested him,' inspector A.S. Chauhan of Hazratganj police station said.

Singh was shifted to the Lucknow district jail Friday afternoon after the district court rejected his bail application.

He has been framed and jailed under false charges, the Congress alleged.