Slain RTI activist's brother moves high court

PTI
Thursday, February 4, 2010 19:28 IST


Mumbai: Slain RTI activist Satish Shetty's brother
 Sandip Shetty today said that he wanted to intervene
in the PIL being heard by the Bombay High Court in
connection with his murder.

Satish, a Talegaon-based Right To Information (RTI)
activist and an anti-corruption crusader, who had
unearthed several land-related scams in the area,
was murdered last month by unidentified assailants
 while on a morning walk.

The high court took suo motu (own its own) notice of
 the incident, and initiated a PIL. Sandip, Satish's
younger brother, was today present in the court.

 His lawyer said that he wanted to intervene in the PIL,
as he had a lot of documents pertaining to Satish's RTI queries.

"He has no confidence in the police," Sandip's lawyer said.

 The division bench of Justices F I Rebello and JH Bhatia
said that it would allow him to become a party.

The state government today informed the court that out of
six persons who are suspected to be involved in Satish's murder,
five have been arrested so far, and police have sought magistrate's
 permission to subject them to lie detector test.

Senior advocate D Madon, appointed as amicus curie to assist the court,
 said that countries such as Mexico and Columbia have special systems
for providing protection to activists, and authorities are studying them.

Adjourning the hearing for one week, the high court sought a reply
from the government about progress in Shetty murder case, and about
 the proposed steps for protecting social activists.

The court also sought a reply from Mumbai police commissioner
 about investigation into six cases of threats or assaults on
local social activists.

Mitra, an umbrella organisation of NGOs which
has intervened in this PIL, had submitted list of
 these cases to the police commissioner.