Human Rights Defenders – Alert (HRDA) on January 31, 2022 decried Rajasthan police for its failure to arresting the main accused in the assault and torture case of RTI activist Amraram Godara.
On December 21, 2021, Godara was abducted by an SUV parked near his house and taken to an isolated location. There, the accused Nagaram, Manaram and Bankaram broke his hands, hammered nails into his legs and forced him to drink urine.He was finally thrown near a bus stand, as the assailants presumed he was dead. But Godara survived and narrated that the assailants had first tried to run him over with the vehicle. He was sent to the primary health centre Pareu village then referred to Nahta Hospital, Balotra and then finally to Jodhpur.
Godara filed an FIR with the Gida police station for attempt to murder, assault, abduction and criminal conspiracy. However, the police initially registered the complaint against unknown persons. Even after arresting four persons, the police did not arrest the main accused Nagaram – an ex-sarpanch and husband of the current sarpanch. The other accused are Pareu gram panchayat sarpanch Bankaram and local contractor Manaram. The latter often receives village level contractors from panchayats. These accused were angry with Godara for repeatedly raising corruption cases like sale of illegal liquor through RTIs.
Most recently, he sent an application to the state government under the ‘Prasashan Gaon Ke Sang’ campaign on December 15. Godara said in the document that the panchayat had paid more than the fixed amount for some work. Two days later, his allegation was investigated by a committee, who found the claim to be true. On December 19, the panchayat had to return the excess amount.
In January 2022, Godara went on a hunger strike and wrote to the Superintendent of Police about the delay in arrests. His dissent received the solidarity of the HRDA that wrote to the concerned authorities, saying, “We believe the delay in arresting the main accused who are political heavyweights in the region exposes the negligence of the police towards protection of a HRD who was subjected to torture and kidnapping. Their lax attitude has put the HRD and his family in danger of reprisal. We also fear that the main accused may interfere with the investigation.”
Therefore, they demanded action against Gida SHO Jay Ram as well.
A fact-finding report on this assault also raised several red flags such as Godara’s initial statement by the police on December 22, at 11.20 AM. By then, the RTI activist had only received first aid. His subsequent statements were added under ‘views added later’ and have not been acted upon. The report demanded that his subsequent statements be treated as his original because he was not able to provide a clear statement in the immediate aftermath of his attack.
Further, the HRDA asked the Director General of Police to ensure complete physical and psychological safety for Godara and his family and give it in writing to the NHRC within one week. It argued that the RTI activist must also receive ₹ 10 lakh as compensation.
“We believe that the role of the local police and ongoing negligence in the arrest of the main accused needs to be thoroughly investigated as we believe that the police negligence has been instrumental in this brutal assault of an HRD,” said Working Secretary Henri Tiphagne.
According to the HRDA, RTI users are among the most vulnerable and targeted human rights defenders in India. Protection of such activists is a state-duty as specified in the declaration on human rights defenders, adopted in 1998 by the UN General Assembly.
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