Queries were too personal, demeaning and outraged the modesty of the woman officer, Kolar police told South First.
Published Oct 05, 2022 | 1:01 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 05, 2022 | 1:01 AM
Arrested RTI activist Nagaraj from Mandikal
A 56-year-old RTI activist from Kolar district in Karnataka is cooling his heels at the district sub-jail after he posed several inappropriate personal questions to a woman Tehsildhar in Mulbagal taluk recently, Superintendent of Police, Kolar, D Devaraj, told the South First.
RTI activist Nagaraj, a resident of Mandikal village of Mulbagal taluk in Kolar district has been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code 353, obstruction of public servants from discharging his/her duties; 506, criminal intimidation; and 509, words or gestures that intent to outrage the modesty of woman.
Nagaraj was arrested on 28 September by the Mulbagal police and produced before a magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody after he had come to the Tehsildhar office for the second time and created a ruckus that his RTI queries remained unanswered.
Nagaraj in his RTI queries posed recently, had sought to know details of the officer’s marital status. Through RTI queries, Nagaraj sought to know about her marriage/s, seperation/s. More personal questions related to the office’s marital life were posed. He even asked for the officer’s wedding cards, details of venue where the wedding took place, among other personal questions.
Arrested RTI activist Nagaraj from Mandikal. (Supplied)
Nagaraj had paid the postal fee of ₹10 and sent his RTI query to the Tehsildhar office demanding answers urgently.
“According to the Supreme Court guidelines on the RTI Act, section 8(1)(J), personal details of a public servant should not be sought, and it was obvious that this man was using the RTI Act to harass the woman Tehsildhar,” said Kolar SP Devaraj.
“Initially she chose to ignore it and this irked the so-called activist further, and he had come to her office on 28 September and created a ruckus as his queries remained unanswered. No public servants can work efficiently under such circumstances,” Devaraj told South First.
The staff of the Tehsildar office in Mulbagal informed the police who reached the spot and took Nagaraj to the station.
“Section of 353 under IPC is non-bailable as it is obstruction of public servants from discharging duties, and hence he was remanded,” a senior police officer with the Mulbagal circle told South First.
The woman Tehsildhar was not the only one Nagaraj has allegedly harassed.
“There were three other cases of SC/ST atrocities against him; in two cases he was acquitted, and in one the police filed a B-report,” said the senior police officer.
Meanwhile, Nagaraj told the police that he had applied for a grant of land of 40 acres for his social work in Mulbagal and the officials at the Tehsildhar office had not cared to respond, prompting him to file the RTI queries to the Tehsildhar.
The Mulbagal police have collected his RTI query as evidence in the case. Further investigations are underway.
The woman Tehsildhar of Mulbagal shot to fame after she walked into a mosque in the taluk during the pandemic-related lockdown and booked many inside for violating Covid protocols.
