Attacks on RTI activists in India

Many Right to Information Act (RTI) activists, including policemen, have been harassed and even murdered for seeking information to "promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority" in India. Many face assaults on a regular basis. People seeking information from their gram panchayat and the local administration also face social ostracism. A few activists who sought information under RTI related to MNREGA scams, were killed.^[1][2][3] Many threats and attacks (including murder) go unreported by the media.^[4][5]

Media reports of more than 300 instances of attacks on or harassment of citizens and at least 51 murders and 5 suicides can be linked to information sought under The Right to Information Act. Maharashtra followed by Gujarat tops the list for states with the most attacks on RTI users.^[6]

Overview

RTI activists are vulnerable human rights defenders (HRDs) in India. Unlike other HRDs, a majority of the RTI activists are not part of an organisation; they often act alone, moved by anger at corruption and other illegal activities. RTI activists are vulnerable because they live in the same areas as public authorities and political leaders who do not want information about their activities to be disclosed.^[7] For the most part, human rights defenders receive media attention only when killed or seriously injured. When complaints are made by RTI activists, law enforcement personnel (who often work with corrupt officials) do not take appropriate action . The Right to Information Act, 2005 provides inadequate protection to whistleblowers. The Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions are not mandated to deal with such threats or attacks or to provide protection when needed.^[8] Attacks on RTI users have not ceased despite directions from several information commissions and state governments to protect them from harm.^[9]

List of attacks

There are two sources of crowd sourced lists maintained of the attacks on people using RTI to seek transparency and accountability, primarily based on media reports. The first is via the National Campaign for People's Right to Information. A "Hall of Shame" is maintained by CHRI.^[10]

Killed/Murdered

Name	State	District / Location	Date	Attack type	Nature of Activism
Sudhir Chaudhary	Gujarat	Tapi	2024	Killed	[11]
Devjit Singh	Uttar Pradesh	Aligarh			[12][13]
Gattu Vamana Rao and his wife Nagamani	Telangana	Peddapalli	2021-02-18	Murdered by Knife	RTI filed for land issue, more details waiting for the culprits.
Ranjan Kumar Das	Odisha	Kendrapara	2020-02-01	Killed	Regularly filed RTIs on local issues, including brick kilns.[14]
Sanjay Dubey	Maharashtra	Mumbai	2019-05-20	Murdered[15]	Filed RTI regarding illegal construction and PIL in High court against a politician.[16][17]
Chirag Patel	Gujrat	Ahmadabad	2019-03-16	Killed[18]	Obtaining information regarding MPLAD.
Vinayak Shirsath	Maharashtra	Pune	2019-02-12	Murdered[19]	Filed RTI regarding illegal construction.[20][21]
Bhola Sah	Bihar	Banka	2018-12-23	Killed[22]	Exposed financial irregularities in Social Welfare schemes.[22]
Manoj Tripathi	Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal	2018-11-02	Fall from building[23][24]	RTI filed. Complaint against powerful leader.[24][25]
Rohit Ashoke Junaware	Maharashtra	Pune	2018-11-01	Killed[26]	Construction related information.[27]
Kedar Singh Jindan	Himachal Pradesh	Sirmaur	2018-09-07	Killed[28]	Exposed various jobs related scam.[28]
Parshuram Pradhan	Odisa	Sambhalpur	2018-08-27	Killed[29]	Exposed corruption in cooperative societies[29]
Valmiki Yadav	Bihar	Jamui	2018-07-01	Killed[30]	Exposed various corrupt practices in Panchayat level programme.[31][32][33]
Rajendra Prasad Singh	Bihar	East Champaran	2018-06-21	Killed[34]	Exposed Several corruption in police recruitment, PDS, toilet scheme, health and education scheme through his RTI application.[35][36][37][38]
Jayant Kumar	Bihar	Vaishali	2018-04-04	Killed[39][40]	Exposed corruption in Bihar State Food Corporation.[41] Collected information regarding corrupt practices by policeman and politicians.[42]
Nanjibhai Sondarva	Gujarat	Rajkot	2018-03-09	Clubbed to death	For filing RTIs to expose financial irregularities in the developmental works undertaken in a village[43]
Mirtyunjay Singh	Bihar	Bhojpur	2017	Killed[44]
Mukesh Dube	Madhya Pradesh	Moraina	2017-09-26	Stabbed to Death[45][46]	Exposed corruption in Panchayats
Md Tahiruddin	West Bengal		2016-11-19	Murdered	Exposed MGNREGA scams in Gram Panchayat of Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal, disseminated Information to job card holders, whose bank accounts were used for withdrawing money in name of fake projects. He was working under the organization PACT Org as a volunteer, it is an organization working in the field of Transparency and anti-corruption
Lalit Mehta	Jharkhand		2008-05-15	Killed[47]	Mehta used RTI to expose NREGA related scams. Fought for the social audit of NREGA
Kameshwar Yadav	Jharkhand		2008-06-07	Killed[3]	Sought information on the nexus among officers, politicians, contractors and middlemen in NREGA related irrigation projects in Deori.
Venkatesh	Karnataka		2009-06-04
Satish Shetty	Maharashtra	Pune	2010-01-13	Killed[48]
Arun Sawant	Maharashtra		2010-01-02	Killed[49]
Vishram Laxman Dodiya	Gujarat		2010-02-11	Killed[50]
Shashidhar Mishra	Bihar	Begusarai	2010-02-14	Killed[51]
Sola Ranga Rao	Andhra Pradesh		2010-04-11	Killed[50]
Vitthal Gite	Maharashtra	Aurangabad	2010-04-21	Killed[52]
Dattatraya Patil	Maharashtra	Ichalkaranji	2010-05-22	Killed[53]
Gopal Prasad	Bihar	Buxar	2010-07-19	Killed[44]
Amit Jethwa	Gujarat	Ahmedabad	2010-07-20	Killed[54]	Used RTI to expose illegal mining in the Gir Forest area. Dinu Boga arrested by CBI in this case. Earlier Gujarat police had given clean chit to Dinu Boga.
Vijay Pratap (alias Babbu Singh)	Uttar Pradesh		2010-07-25	Killed[55]
Ramdas Ghadegaonkar	Maharashtra		2010-08-27	Killed[56]
Niyamat Ansari	Jharkhand		2011-02-03	Killed[1]	Exposed corruption by contractors in work under MNREGA.[1]
Jagdish	Haryana		2011-10-02	Attempt to kill[57]	Jagdish and Phool Singh, another resident of his village, unearthed a pension scam and subsequently filed a case of alleged fraud against the accused in the court. The Village Head tried to kill him, but only managed to crush his legs and killed his daughter-in-law Sonu.
Amit Kapasia	Gujarat		2011-12-29	Killed[58]
Shehla Masood	Madhya Pradesh		2011-08-16	Killed[59]
Dr. Murlidhar Jaiswal	Bihar	Munger	2012-03-04	Killed[44]
Rahul Kumar	Bihar	Katihar	2012-03-11	Killed[44]
Rajesh Yadav	Bihar	Gaya	2012-12-12	Killed[44]
S Bhuvaneswaran	Tamil Nadu		2012-10-01	Killed[60]
Nadeem Saiyed	Gujarat		2011-05-11	Killed (reason possibly unrelated)[61]
Ramvilas Singh	Bihar	Lakhisarai	2011-08-12	Killed (reason possibly unrelated)[62]
V Balasubramanian	Tamil Nadu		2010-08-19	Killed(?)[63]
Premnath Jha	Maharashtra	Mumbai, Virar	2012-02-25	Killed[64]	Filed several RTI queries with the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation seeking details of several construction projects
Vasudeva Adiga	Karnatka	Udupi	2013-01-12	Killed[65]
Ram Kumar Thakkur	Bihar	Ratnauli, Muzzafarpur	2013-03-23	Killed[2][66]	Lawyer; Persisted with a legal case exposing "irregularities" in the implementation of NREGA welfare scheme in his village. Earlier, used RTI and exposed fraud involving sarpanch (village head).[2][66]
Sanjay Tyagi	Uttar Pradesh	Meerut	2014-05-25	Killed[67]
Shivshankar Jha	Bihar	Saharsa	2014	Killed
Sandeep Kothari	Maharashtra	Nagpur	2015-06-19 till 2015-06-21	Strangled and then burned to death[68]	Exposed illegal sand mining and land grabbing
Surendra Sharma	Bihar	Masaurhi	2015-04-03	Killed[44]
Gopal Tiwari	Bihar	Gopalganj	2015	Killed[44]
Ramakan Singh	Bihar	Rohtas	2016	Killed[44]
Ramesh Agarwal	Chattishgarh	Raigarh	2012-07-07	Shot[69]
Vinayak Baliga	Karnataka	Mangalore	2016-03-21	Hacked to death[70]	[71]

Abducted/Kidnapped and Tortured

Name	State	District / Location	Date	Attack type	Nature of Activism
Anoop Singh	Uttar Pradesh	Noida, Dankaur Town	December 2013	Abducted and Tortured	An RTI activist was abducted from Dankaur town in Gautam Budh Nagar district on 13 December, burnt with cigarette butts on his private parts and beaten with iron rods before being dumped near a petrol pump in a neighbouring district four days later. [72][73]

Assault

Name	State	Date	Attack type	Nature of Activism
Yashwant Shinde	Maharashtra	Jan 2020	Physical assault	Shinde had sought details under RTI on Worli police's seizure of Rs. 4 crore in cash from a car during state assembly elections.
Sambhuram Bishnoi	Rajasthan	Oct 2013	Abduct and Assault with hockey and iron rods in his village sarpanch's house while going for aadhaar card enrollment and killed	Exposed MNREGA, Sajal Dhara tubewell scam against his village sarpanch
Adv. Mohd. Hasim Shaikh	Maharashtra	5 Jan 2014	Assault with Hockey and Iron rods in the late evening when going towards home, got major injuries and also got finger fractured, the assaulters took away the cell phone and a wallet.	Exposed License scams in BMC and also got Penalized officers of BMC by State Information Commissions, working as an alert and active citizen, associated with various citizens group.
Rinku Singh Rahi	Uttar Pradesh	26 Mar 2009	Assaulted, removed to a mental institution.[74]	Rahi is a bureaucrat who used RTI to expose welfare scheme fraud in Muzzaffarnagar
Firoz Ibrahim Khan	Maharashtra	17 Nov 2007	Assault[75]
Gopalbandhu Chhatria	Odisha	2 Jan 2009	Assault[76]
Ripu Daman Ohri	Punjab	6 Jan 2009	Assault[77]
Munikrishna	Karnataka	27 Oct 2009	Assault[78]
Ajay Kumar	Delhi	1 Jan 2010	Assault[79]	Used RTI to enquire about private house/shop construction on public land under authorization given by a Delhi politician.
Kiran Pandey	Punjab	1 Oct 2010	Assault[80]
Sumaira Abdulali	Maharashtra	16 Mar 2010	Assault (in 2003 at Kihim Beach and 2010 at Mahad)[81][82][83]
RAJEEV SARKAR alias RAJIB SARKAR	WEST BENGAL	20 July 2015	Assault (in 2015 at Baguati and 2016 at Baguiati and arrest by false case 2017)[84][85][86]
Abhay Patil	Maharashtra	4 Jan 2010	Assault[87]
Ashok Kumar Shinde	Maharashtra	17 Jul 2010	Assault[88]
Budhai Kumar	Uttar Pradesh	8 Sept 2010	Assault[89]
S Channabasappa Patil	Karnataka	9/16/10	Assault[90]
Yashwant Gavand	Maharashtra	1 February 2011	Assault[91]
Arun Baburao Mane	Maharashtra	1 February 2011	Assault[92]
Salman Reddy	Orissa	1/17/11	Assault[93]
Safdar Ali	Jammu and Kashmir	1/20/11	Assault[94]
Vikrant Karnik	Maharashtra	1/25/11	Assault[95]
Amar Pandey	Uttar Pradesh	1/27/11	Assault[96]
Gopal Prasad, Anil Mittal, Nanda Sawant	Delhi	2 March 2011	Assault[97]
Mangala Ram	Rajasthan	3 March 2011	Assault[98]
Bharat Guggul, Bhanji Jogen	Gujarat	3 May 2011	Assault[99]
Vishnu Medhkar	Maharashtra	4 February 2011	Assault[98]
Dilip Jaiswal	Maharashtra	4 May 2011	Assault[100]
Arvind Kaushal	Maharashtra	4 August 2011	Assault[101]
Popat Barge	Maharashtra	4/17/11	Assault[102]
Jai Bhagwan and Karambir	Haryana	5/21/11	Assault[103]
Ismail Patwari	Maharashtra	5/27/11	Assault[104]
C.P. Singh	Maharashtra	6/22/11	Assault[105]
Baghu Dewani	Gujarat	6/24/11	Assault[106]
Ganasham Kunkolkar	Goa	7/22/11	Assault[107]
Jaisukh Bambhania	Daman and Diu	8 August 2011	Assault[108]
Sanjit Das	Meghalaya	8/14/11	Assault[109]
Ajay Ambalia	Gujarat	8/31/11	Assault[110]
Parshuram Kishanlal Mali	Gujarat	9 July 2011	Assault[111]
Manisha Goswami	Gujarat	9/21/11	Assault[112]
Mehul Kataria	Maharashtra	10 July 2011	Assault[113]
Santosh M Tiwari	Maharashtra, Gujarat	10/16/11	Assault[114]
Poonam Solanki	Gujarat	12 February 2011	Assault[115]
Akhilesh Saxena	Uttar Pradesh	2008	Assault[76]
Parameswar Sabar	Orissa	June 2011	Assault[116]
Niren Pareek, Christopher Minz	Assam	May 2007	Assault[117]
Tapal Ganesh	Karnataka	Unknown	Assault[118]
Purshottam Chauhan	Gujarat	Unknown	Assault[119]
Narayan Hareka	Orissa	Unknown	Assault[120]
Akhil Gogoi	Assam	Unknown	Assault[117]
Sumit Kumar Mahato	Jharkhand	Unknown	Assault[76]
Ms. Poonam Solanki	Gujarat	12 July 2011	Assault[115][121]	Human Rights Activist
Dudhram	Rajasthan, Jaipur	2 February 2012	Assault[122]
Akhil Gogoi	Assam, Nalbari	5 July 2012	Assault[123]
Rajesh suresh Bobade	Maharashtra	21 September 2012	Assault
L.K.Thapliyal	Uttarakhand	25 July 2013	Assault	Beaten up by a group of men including a ranger, Devendra Baurai from the Chilawali range of Rajaji National Park. Mr L.K. Thapliyal had filed a RTI against Rajaji National Park.
Anand Kumar Sharma	Odisha	11 Feb 2018	Assault, Illegal detention by police and illegal custody by SDJM	Beaten up in police station with grievous injury as he exposed the corruption in Police Department.[citation needed]
Nilofar	Uttar Pradesh	26 October 2018	Assault[124]	Exposed corruption against gram pradhan.[124]
Krishanpal	Uttar pradesh	15 May 2019	Assault[125]	Exposed illegal possession in government land.[125][126]

Harassment

Name	State	Date	Attack type	Nature of Activism
Srikant Pakal	Odisha	Feb 2020	Harassment	Harassment for filing case in Lokayukt seeking probe against Bishnupada Sethi IAS and alleged that the officer spent Rs 9.46 lakh towards the hospitalisation of his wife and father from the funds of Odisha State Cooperative Bank, in violation of the existing norms during his stint as secretary of cooperation department.[127]
Bibhav Kumar, Rajeev Kumar	Uttar Pradesh	1/26/07	Harassment[128]
Tukaram Bansode	Maharashtra	12/31/07	Harassment[129]
V Gopalakrishnan	Tamil Nadu	3/13/09	Harassment[130]
Srikant Prabhu	Maharashtra	5 January 2009	Harassment[76]
Kishori Ram	Bihar	7/21/09	Harassment[76]
Goverdhan Singh	Rajasthan	3 January 2010	Harassment[76]
Mohit Sharma	Delhi	3 December 2010	Harassment[131]
Jay Kumar Raghuvanshi	Maharashtra	3/13/10	Harassment[132]
Davinder Khurana	Punjab	4 February 2010	Harassment[76]
Ramesh Agrawal	Chhattisgarh	6/23/10	Harassment[76]
Ganesh Borhade	Maharashtra	7 July 2010	Harassment[133]
Manish Bhatnagar	Maharashtra	7/18/10
Harshad Patil	Maharashtra	8/13/10	Harassment[135]
Gopalkrishnan, Siva Elango, Madhav Vishnubhatta	Tamil Nadu	9 January 2010	Harassment[136]
Fatima Mynsong, Acquiline Songthiang, Matilda Suting	Meghalaya	9 January 2010	Harassment[137]
Abhijit Ghosh	Maharashtra	9 January 2010	Harassment[138]
Ratna Ala	Gujarat	9/29/10	Harassment[139]
Bobby Basaiawmoit	Meghalaya	2 January 2011	Harassment[140]
Mary Anne Pohshna	Meghalaya	3 September 2011	Harassment[141]
Sanjay Gurav	Maharashtra	3/22/11	Harassment[142]
M Z Ali	Karnataka	5 October 2011	Harassment[143]
Ketan Shah	Gujarat	5 December 2011	Harassment[144][145]
Ravinder Rathi	Haryana	6 February 2011	Harassment[146]
Payi Gyadi	Arunachal Pradesh	6 May 2011	Harassment[147]
Brijesh Kumar	Delhi	8 February 2011	Harassment[148]
Ashok Paswan	Bihar	8/19/11	Harassment[149]
Arvind Sharma	Punjab	9 May 2011	Harassment[150]
Derrick Dias	Goa	9 November 2011	Harassment[107]
Subhash Aggarwal	Delhi	10 July 2011	Harassment[151]
Sheeba Fehmi and Arshad Ali Fehmi	Delhi	10 August 2011	Harassment[152]
Sanjay Gurav	Maharashtra	11/28/11	Harassment[153]
Anupam Saraf, Vaibhav Gandhi and Dinesh Shah	Maharashtra	12/13/11	Harassment[154]
R. Marijoseph	Karnataka	12/30/11	Harassment[155]
Kishan Lal Gera	Haryana	Since 2008	Harassment[156]
R V Prasanna	Karnataka	Since 2009	Harassment[157]
Shiv Prakash Rai	Bihar	May 2008	Harassment[149]
Takhellambam Ibempishak, Sagolsem Memcha and Konjengbam Anita	Manipur	Since Apr 2011	Harassment[158]
Pawan Sharma	Uttar Pradesh	Since 11 April 2011	Harassment[159]
Emmanuel	Andhra Pradesh	February and March 2011	Harassment[160]
Jagbir Singh	Delhi	Since February 2011	Harassment[161]
Biren Luwang	Manipur	Since April 2011	Harassment[162]
Injambakkam H Sekar	Tamil Nadu	Since August 2011	Harassment[163]
Khirasindhu Sagria	Orrisa	Since November 2011	Harassment[164]
Muzibur Rehman	Unknown	2007	Harassment[165]
Saleem Baig	Uttar Pradesh	2007	Harassment[76]
Asith Sangma	Meghalaya	2008	Harassment[76]
Ashok Verma	Punjab	2009	Harassment[166]
Kheemaram	Rajasthan	2010	Harassment[167]
Shivaji Raut	Maharashtra	June 2011	Harassment[168]
Ajay Gakhar	Delhi	July 2011	Harassment[169]
All Gujarat RTI users	Gujarat	July 2011	Harassment[170]
Ankur Patil	Maharashtra	September 2011	Harassment[171]
Gunjan Mehta	Gujarat	December 2011	Harassment[172]
Durga	Delhi	2011	Harassment[173]
C J Karira	Andhra Pradesh	2011	Harassment[174]
Nelapati Papireddy, Pachalla Suryanarayana Reddy and Kovuru Satyanarayana Reddy	Andhra Pradesh	2011	Harassment[175]
Mohinder Kumar	Punjab	Unknown	Harassment[176]
Anwar Shaikh	Maharashtra	Unknown	Harassment[177]
Y. Ekyimo Kikon	Nagaland	Unknown	Harassment[178]
Ashok Rathod	Gujarat	Unknown	Harassment[179]
Bharat H Gajjar, Milan Joshi	Gujarat	Unknown	Harassment[180]
Rolly Shivhare	Madhya Pradesh	Unknown	Harassment[76]
Jai Prakash Arya	Delhi	Unknown	Harassment[181]
Gian Singh	Delhi	Unknown	Harassment[181]
Ram Sagar	Delhi	Unknown	Harassment[182]
Sumankant Raichaudhari	Bihar	Unknown	Harassment[183]
Piyusha Tiwari	Rajasthan	Unknown	Harassment[184]
Rayabhai Zapadiya	Gujarat	Unknown	Harassment[185]
Razuddin	Haryana	Unknown	Harassment[186]
Rukhminibhai	Andhra Pradesh	Unknown	Harassment[187]
Roshan Lobo	Karnataka	Unknown	Harassment[188]
Bhadresh Wamja	Gujarat	Unknown	Harassment[112]
Bhanjibhai Jogel and Bharatbhai Ghughal	Gujarat	Unknown	Harassment[112]
Sudhir Yadav	Haryana, Gurgaon	6 October 2013	Harassment[189]	An RTI Activist who tried to Bring all the documents of Corruption From Villages of the Block Farrukh Nagar, Gurgaon was threaten to be killed if he continue filling the RTI against Sarpanch and keep asking about the development work.
Dilip kumar reddy k	Hyderabad	3 Jan 2014	Removed from the job	Exposed corruption in engineering college fee reimbursement and seat allocation at aurora Institute.
Mushtaq Pahalgami	Jammu and Kashmir	27 December 2010	Physically attacked, abused, threatened against filing any further RTIs/PILs[190]	Exposed forest land-grab attempts by the local land mafia, helped ensure the High Court construction ban in the region[191]

Suicide

Name	State	Date	Attack type	Nature of Activism
Jabbardan Gadhvi	Gujarat	2/22/2011	Suicide[192]

See also

• The Right to Information Act 2005