Maharashtra home dept issued a notification to commissionerates and rural headquarters directing authorities to investigate cases carefully before submitting reports to higher police officers.
In a strong move to check the rising cases of blackmail of government officers using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, the state home department recently issued a notification to commissionerates and rural headquarters. It has directed authorities to investigate cases carefully before submitting reports to higher police officers.
The department took the step after the matter was discussed during the winter session of state legislative assembly in Nagpur. The notification states that such cases are on a rise, especially in Mumbai.
A senior police officer attached with the Pune city police told DNA, “We are receiving complaints from government officers and other people also. In most of the cases, blackmailers demand money or favour.”
In the recent past, such cases had come out in the open during the hearings of the second appeals before the state information commissioners.
The modus operandi of blackmailers who operate in cohorts are simple. An applicant files an RTI application, voluminous in nature, with an officer. In case the officer fails to answer the query in time, the first appeal is filed with the officer and hush money is demanded.
If the officer fails to succumb to the blackmail or refuses to comply, the same information is asked by other people at the same time to act as a pressure tactic. This results in the clogging of the appeal systems, with some people filing more than seven or eight appeals for the same case.
Moreover, the officers have been complaining about blatant blackmail by certain RTI users. Usually departments dealing with procurement and distribution of grants, such as agriculture and public distribution systems, are susceptible to blackmail.
Veteran activist Vijay Kumbhar suggested suo motu declaration of information to prevent such practice by unscrupulous RTI users.
Mumbai-based RTI activist Bhaskar Prabhu told DNA, “The police should investigate which information has been sought. If found worthy, action should be taken against the authority concerned before punishing blackmailer.”
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