MP: RTI activist arrested for abetment after teacher burns himself alive over blackmail
Damoh: An RTI activist in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district, Jitendra, was arrested recently for allegedly harassing and blackmailing primary school teacher Rajesh Tripathi, which led Tripathi to burn himself alive in Hatta town on May 15. The middle-aged activist is accused of causing mental distress to Tripathi, prompting the tragic incident.
Since the arrest, more primary school teachers have come forward, filing complaints against the same RTI activist, as reported by The New Indian Express on Wednesday.
Jitendra had alleged that Tripathi secured his government job using a fake BEd degree. Police investigations revealed that the RTI activist was harassing and blackmailing Tripathi in the matter to regularly get money from him. “After forcing Tripathi to pay him around Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, Jitendra had recently started demanding that the school teacher pay him half of his salary every month,” TNIE quoted Damoh district police superintendent Shrutkirti Somwanshi as saying.
Burdened by over Rs 50 lakh in debts from bank loans and private money lenders for a house construction, and under constant pressure to pay Jitendra while facing threats of being fired from his job over the fake degree allegation, Tripathi took the extreme step to immolate self. He succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at the hospital.
Jitendra has been booked under BNS Sections for mentally harassing Tripathi and abetment of suicide.
Meanwhile, more than 20 government school teachers in Damoh district have been dismissed following a departmental investigation that revealed they had secured their positions using fraudulent degrees.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
