Amitabh Thakur

A Police Officer (IPS) with a difference

Wikipedia

Amitabh Thakur - IPS, Lucknow

He is did FPM at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow following a controversy in which his request for a leave was denied by the government in Uttar Pradesh.Recently even the Allahabad High Court ordered in his favour but the matter is still being kept pending.

Thakur is the founder of the National RTI Forum, a grassroots anti-corruption organization in India that advocates for government openness under the terms of the 2005 Right to Information Act.[6] The organization is based in Lucknow.

His filing of First Information Report against Facebook Inc. and others for use of abusive language against Mahatma Gandhi has been widely appreciated in India, following which the Facebook group was banned.
He is currently posted as IG, Civil Defense department.

As a writer

Recently his book "Fresh Brew- Chronicles of Business and Freedom" along with IIM Lucknow graduate Amit Haralalka about 25 IIM Lucknow entrepreneurs has been well received.

Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/amitabh.thakur/info?tab=page_info
Blog - http://amitabhandnutan.blogspot.in/
Jan 2015 update - http://upcpri.blogspot.in/2015/01/a-woman-from-ghaziabad-accuse-rti.html


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Facebook bans online group: I hate Gandhi
Move after IPS officer lodged FIR under IT Act
PTI | January 27, 2011

Social networking site Facebook has banned an online group for allegedly maligning the image of Mahatma Gandhi, an IPS officer, who lodged an FIR against the site, claimed today.

The group "I hate Gandhi" has now been banned by the social networking site, according to Amitabh Thakur who had yesterday lodged an FIR against the company alleging it was portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner and spreading hatred.

Lucknow Assistant Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak and his team, probing the matter, had directed officials of the Facebook Inc to immediately ban the said group, he said.

"The group has now been banned by the Facebook," Thakur, an IPS officer of the UP cadre, said.

Thakur in his complaint had alleged that abuses and dirty words have been used against Gandhi by the group on the social networking site.

He said the words and abuses were of such nature that they were wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

The FIR was lodged under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
- See more at: http://www.governancenow.com/gov-next/egov/facebook-bans-online-group-i-hate-gandhi#sthash.qEIHnwRa.dpuf

Facebook bans online group: I hate Gandhi

ShareThis Facebook Tweet LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Move after IPS officer lodged FIR under IT Act

PTI | January 27, 2011

Social networking site Facebook has banned an online group for allegedly maligning the image of Mahatma Gandhi, an IPS officer, who lodged an FIR against the site, claimed today.

The group "I hate Gandhi" has now been banned by the social networking site, according to Amitabh Thakur who had yesterday lodged an FIR against the company alleging it was portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner and spreading hatred.

Lucknow Assistant Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak and his team, probing the matter, had directed officials of the Facebook Inc to immediately ban the said group, he said.

"The group has now been banned by the Facebook," Thakur, an IPS officer of the UP cadre, said.

Thakur in his complaint had alleged that abuses and dirty words have been used against Gandhi by the group on the social networking site.

He said the words and abuses were of such nature that they were wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

The FIR was lodged under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

- See more at: http://www.governancenow.com/gov-next/egov/facebook-bans-online-group-i-hate-gandhi#sthash.qEIHnwRa.dpuf

Facebook bans online group: I hate Gandhi

ShareThis Facebook Tweet LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Move after IPS officer lodged FIR under IT Act

PTI | January 27, 2011

Social networking site Facebook has banned an online group for allegedly maligning the image of Mahatma Gandhi, an IPS officer, who lodged an FIR against the site, claimed today.

The group "I hate Gandhi" has now been banned by the social networking site, according to Amitabh Thakur who had yesterday lodged an FIR against the company alleging it was portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner and spreading hatred.

Lucknow Assistant Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak and his team, probing the matter, had directed officials of the Facebook Inc to immediately ban the said group, he said.

"The group has now been banned by the Facebook," Thakur, an IPS officer of the UP cadre, said.

Thakur in his complaint had alleged that abuses and dirty words have been used against Gandhi by the group on the social networking site.

He said the words and abuses were of such nature that they were wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

The FIR was lodged under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

- See more at: http://www.governancenow.com/gov-next/egov/facebook-bans-online-group-i-hate-gandhi#sthash.qEIHnwRa.dpuf

Shashidhar Mishra

Source

Shashidhar Mishra uncovered official wrongdoing using India's Right To Information law. Now he's become an RTI martyr 

Shashidhar Mishra was always a curious man. Neighbours in the scruffy industrial town of Baroni, in the northern Indian state of Bihar, called him "kabri lal" or "the news man" because he was always so well informed.

Late every evening, the 35-year-old street hawker would sit down with his files and scribble notes. In February, the father of four was killed outside his home after a day's work selling pens, sweets and snacks in Baroni's bazaar.

The killing was swift and professional. The street lights went out, two men on motorbikes drew up and there were muffled shots. Mishra, an enthusiastic RTI activist, as those who systematically use India's right to information law to uncover wrongdoing and official incompetence are known, became the latest in the country's growing list of RTI martyrs.

Choudry said that no killing linked to RTI had taken place in Bihar and that Mishra's death in February was "not linked to any RTI application". Local police denied Mishra was an activist and said they no longer had possession of the investigation file opened on his death. It contained, his family said, most of the answers he had received to his various RTI requests.

The dead man had hidden a box of papers at home that suggest the hawker's activism was indeed the reason for his murder. The documents, seen by the Guardian, included receipts for hundreds of different applications for information about local officials, businessmen and even the police themselves.

Mishra, described by his sister as a "sharp and smart guy", had started demanding information two years before his death. His first target was a local government-run dairy, a big employer, where he suspected animals were being mistreated. His next campaign focused on unlicensed stalls run on public land outside the local railway station. These were eventually demolished.

Encouraged by his success, Mishra asked for records of land purchases and sales by members of the local council over the last 20 years. In June last year, he began investigating the local market, largely built by local businessmen on government land. A month later, he asked why there was no electricity in the local health clinic. By the end of the year, he had established that many of the contracts awarded to resurface a road through the town were suspect. He spoke darkly to his family of death threats.

In December and January, Mishra filed a flurry of further information requests, asking for details of the postings of certain policemen and the whereabouts of vehicles the police had recently impounded.

On 9 February , he requested a list of those contracted to carry out construction of a road in the market. He also demanded the local council's 2009 accounts. The answer — which showed that at least £80,000 had been paid to contractors for work that had never been carried out — arrived in May, three months after his death.

His killers had used silenced handguns, the mark of professionals. That a power cut plunged the street into darkness for the few minutes they needed to work indicates the involvement of officials, campaigners claim.

Now his brother Mahdidar is trying to look after four extra children on a family income that has been halved. He told the Guardian he was "desperate".

"I want justice for my brother, but what can I do? There are many corrupt and powerful. I am just one man."

Cases of intimidation and violence are "isolated", Moily, the law minister, insisted. "Wherever protection is needed the government provides it."

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The RTI law, introduced by the Congress party-led government in 2005, was a radical piece of legislation giving private citizens the right to demand written answers from India's always opaque and often corrupt bureaucracy and state institutions such as the police and army.

"It was a total paradigm shift from a regime of secrecy to one of transparency," the law minister, Veerappa Moily, said in an interview in Delhi. "It has changed the entire culture of governance."

In many ways, the law has been an astonishing success, prompting requests from tens of thousands of often poor, sometimes almost illiterate, always highly motivated citizens. In Bihar, more than 100,000 demands were made last year, 20 times as many as five years ago, said AK Choudry, the chief information commissioner for the state. In India as a whole at least a million RTI requests have now been filed.

"This act is for the common man of India. Without paying a bribe a poor man can get answers. We have the right to know what is happening in this country," said Afroz Alam Sahil, a student from Bihar who has registered hundreds of requests.

Yet, with the rule of law weak in much of the country, exercising new rights can mean danger. At least 10 activists have been killed so far this year. All found themselves up against powerful individuals, often in league with local authorities. One uncovered a series of corrupt land deals and thefts of social benefits by officials and was subsequently hacked to death near his home near the city of Pune, Maharashtra state.

A 55-year-old stallholder was killed after investigating electricity supplies and gambling dens in his home town of Surat in the western state of Gujarat. Two activists investigating fraud in government labour schemes for the poor were killed in the lawless eastern state of Jharkand, while others - including a 47-year-old sugar cane farmer in the central state of Maharashtra and an activist near the southern city of Bengaluru - were killed after investigating land acquisitions by big businessmen.

In July, Amit Jethava, a pharmacist in Gujarat who had hounded officials about mining endangering Asian lions, spotted deer and wild boar near his village was shot dead. There has since been a lull in the killings, but beatings, intimidations and threats continue.

Amitabh Thakur, who heads an RTI network in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and is writing a book on the RTI martyrs said that "cases of murder, persecution, prosecution and harassment" are legion. "When you are digging for information there are people who try to hide it from you," he said. "They will do what it takes to keep it hidden."

The true number of activists killed could be much higher. Frequently, campaigners say, the authorities deny a link between the RTI requests and violence, dismissing incidents as everyday crime.

Sher Ali Khan - A forgotten revolutionary

Sher Ali Khan... a forgotten revolutionary.

Sher Ali Khan, a revolutionary deported from the Northern Frontier Province to Andamans by the British, assassinated Lord Mayo, the Viceroy of India on 8th February, 1872. It has been a long wait for this patriot to find a place in history.

It was on the night of 8th February, 1872, that Sher Ali Khan, a revolutionary took the life of Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, the Viceroy of India.

During the British Rule, occasionally, the media would highlight the sufferings of the prisoners of these Islands and report about the torture methods of the British. As a result of which the government would be pressurised to be lenient to them.


In 1869, Lord Mayo, the Viceroy of India devoted special attention to the issue of the plight of the prisoners. In this regard, he gave some benefits to the prisoners in 1871 which increased his popularity by two-folds. It was his wish that he personally go to the Andaman Islands to see the condition of the prisoners with his own eyes. Hence according to the programme, he visited Andamans in the early morning of the 8th of February, 1872. He was also accompanied by Lady Mayo and other high ranking officials. Since this was the first ever visit of a Viceroy to the Islands, special security measures had been taken.


The Viceroy’s arrival was welcomed with 21 cannon fires and the officers lined up to meet him. He spent his entire day touring the workshops, barracks, and factories of the prisoners where they dwelled and worked. At night fall, he insisted visiting Mount Harriet. The place was quite high and had been renovated as a tourist resort for the special guests. There, he marvelled at the beauty of the Island and witnessed sunset from atop Mount Harriett. So much was he immersed in the surroundings, that he was not aware that darkness had set in. It was then that he decided to go back. On the way, he had to pass through the small bridge called ‘Hope Town Bridge’ in order to board a Launch that was ready to transport him back to the Royal Navy Ship where he would be spending his night. Two men with torches were walking ahead of him to light up the path and his private secretaries and bodyguards were on his either side. An armed police guard was following them as well. But these were traditional methods and the Viceroy and his secretaries were walking with their own pace enjoying their trip.


As soon as they boarded the small ship, there was some noise. When the private secretary looked back, he saw that a man was stabbing the Viceroy in his back. The security personnel reacted immediately and snatched the knife from the attacker. The private secretary succeeded in saving the life of the attacker who was a prisoner; otherwise the security personnel were ready to kill him. In all this mayhem, the torch lights also died out creating an atmosphere of fear. When the torches were lit, they saw that the Viceroy had fallen down the tier after being stabbed. For two to three minutes, the Viceroy tried to keep his balance, but then his feet started to shake and he fell. He tried to get back up on his feet again and managed to tell somebody, “Hold my Head”. These were his last words after which he died.


This assassination attempt was made by a prisoner, ‘Sher Ali Khan’. He belonged to Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency. By nature, Sher Ali was a kind man, but a family feud had brought him to this situation. Sher Ali was a man who gave great respect to everybody. The English officers were served well by him. His overall nature was well cultured even after receiving the death penalty. His death penalty was switched to deportation to Kalapani, when he made an appeal. In 1869, he reached the Andaman Islands to serve his sentence. By this time, he had already made up his mind to kill a high ranking English Officer for revenge.


The little amount of money that he would earn while serving here would always be given away to other poor prisoners as charity. Moreover, every second or third month, he would provide some food for the orphaned prisoners as well. The officers did not strictly monitor his activities because of his charitable nature. It was not long that he was appointed as a barber for the labourers in the Islands. Lord Mayo’s murder sent shockwaves throughout the British Empire. Sher Ali Khan told the courts that he had waited for almost all day near the small ship which the Viceroy would board. After killing the Viceroy, he was asked by the courts about who had hired him to do this job. He would simply reply that, “I killed him by the Order of Allah!”


Sher Ali was again tried for murder and was given the death penalty once again. On the 11th of March 1873, when he was brought to the gallows, there was a look of satisfaction in his eyes. He kissed the rope from which he would be hanged and exclaimed, “When I made this intention (of killing the viceroy), I had already envisioned myself over here”. He addressed the gathering who had come to watch the penalty being enforced, “Brothers, I killed your enemy. You be witness that I am a Muslim.” With this, he recited the Kalma Shahadah. Twice he was able to complete it. The third time, he was not able to do so because of suffocation.


(The writer is based in the Andamans and can be reached at zubairpbl@gmail.com)