RTI activist killed in group clash in Beed

Source:Syed Rizwanullah, TNN, Apr 22, 2010, 08.06am IST


AURANGABAD: An RTI activist who had exposed irregularities in a village school in Beed was killed following a clash between two groups on Sunday. The rival group, which inflicted serious injuries on the activist, was led by the son of the president of the educational society that runs the school, Sainath Vidyalaya, the police said.

The activist, Vitthal Gite (39), was a farmer and a flour-mill owner in the village, Waghbet. He, along with another activist, Brijmohan Mishra, had sought information under the RTI Act and exposed irregularities in the functioning of a few other schools in the village as well.

The alleged irregularities in Sainath Vidyalaya were published in a local newspaper, which led to the clash between the two groups in which Gite was killed, Mishra told TOI on Wednesday.

The police, however, said “old enmity” between the two groups had triggered the clash. “We cannot compare this case with the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty of Talegaon. However, information sought by Gite under the RTI Act was one of the reasons behind the group clash,” police inspector Vidyanand Kale of the Parli-Vaijnath police station told TOI.

Kale said a majority of the villagers were related and went by the name Gite. “Sunday’s clash was between two groups of the Gite family. Gite sustained serious injuries in the clash and was taken to a private hospital in Parli. He was later shifted to a hospital in Latur, where he died on Tuesday morning. We have booked around 35 people from both groups and have arrested eight people following complaints lodged by both sides. A murder charge will be slapped on the group led by Amarnath Gite,” he added.