Davanagere: The RTI Workers’ Association has urged rhe state Government to hand over RTI Activist Harish Halli’s death case to CBI. The family of Harish Halli has already complained that the death of RTI Activist was a systematic murder.
Speaking to mediapersons, RTI Workers’ Association President Gurupadayya Matha said that we have received information that a case has already been registered against the guilty policemen. They have been suspended and the case has been handed over to the CID. There is a big conspiracy behind the death of Harish Halli, who died while in Police custody. We suspect that this is a systematic murder and there is a big unseen hand behind it.
He urged the state Government to take this case seriously and hand it over to the CBI for investigation.
He said RTI activist Harish Halli was a brave fighter. He was not a weak-minded person who could end his life due to small cases. No serious criminal case like murder, robbery, and rape was registered against him. He was not a militant, and facing charges of only creating fake documents of private plots which was registered against him, he said.
He questioned why the police went and arrested him 3 to 4 days after the FIR, that too midnight. Harish Halli fighting against scandles in Police Department, especially the orphan corpse sale mafia which was in the news across the state, illegal land mafia of some bureaucrats, illegal educational institutes and industries. He has fought against corruption in mining and various departments. He also filed suits against corruption cases, he noted.
Gurupadaiah Math said they faced opposition from top officials and some vested interests. Harish, an RTI activist, was accused of illegally registering three house sites worth Rs. 2 Crore. An FIR was registered at Gandhi Nagara Police Station against Harish and an unknown woman who posed as Jayashri, Advocate Lingaraju, Gandhi Nagara sub-registrar and his staff. It is being alleged that Harish created fake Aadhaar card and managed to register three house sites belonging to Jayashri, on May 20, officials familiar with the matter said.
Hearing about the fake registration, plot owner Jayashri filed a complaint against Harish on May 23. Following which, the police booked him under sections 506 (threatening with life), 149 (unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object), 419 (cheat by impersonation), 420 (cheating), 465 (committing forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). When the Gandhi Nagara police, where the FIR was registered, called Harish for an enquiry, he tried to escape. Acting on a tip off on the night of May 27, Gandhi Nagara sub-inspector Krishnappa and his staff raided the house of Harish’s wife and picked him up from there. Harish, while he was being brought to the Gandhi Nagara Police Station, asked the police vehicle to be stopped near Golanahunase flyover. Harish jumped from there to escape the police and got injured. He was then shifted to a private hospital in Davanagere. The RTI activist succumbed to injuries on May 28.
However, Harish’s wife and his family members staged a protest in front of the hospital alleging that the police murdered Harish. A case was registered against Sub Inspector Krishnappa and the two other constables at Davanagere Rural Police Station under IPC section 302.