The Hindu : Front Page : Activists seek CBI inquiry into social worker's murder

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Activists seek CBI inquiry into social worker's murder

Special Correspondent

They slam official report on Lalit Mehta's killing

NEW DELHI: More than 100 eminent people from different walks of life have come together to condemn violence on social activists in Jharkhand and demand a CBI probe into the killing of Lalit Mehta and the widespread corruption in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.

They have also criticised the report of the district administration of Palamau for its "baseless allegations" regarding Lalit Mehta's killing and the "callous" attitude of the State in dealing with corruption in the implementation of this programme.

Expressing shock over the recent report prepared by the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police Palamau on the killing of Mehta and the survey of the NREGP — as published in a local daily — the statement described it as a "deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real issues, which effectively protects those responsible for corruption and violence in the area."

Factual error

The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries into Mehta's murder. It does not provide any credible evidence. Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Mehta was murdered on May 14 and not on May 15 as stated in the report, the activists pointed out.

Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of the murder, the report makes absurd insinuations such as Jean Dreze's [the economist leading the social audit team in Palamau] possible involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGP works. Equally ridiculous is the unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family dispute about Mehta's inter-religion marriage being the cause for the murder, the statement says.

"The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, Vikas Sahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta's family. No one familiar with the team's work (which was conducted in a transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can take this seriously. Casting unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean Dreze, who is a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (mandated to monitor NREGP implementation anywhere in the country), and on students from Delhi University and other reputed universities, is in fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government expenditure."

Deep-rooted nexus

The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an entrenched and deep-rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding the NREGP in Palamau, with powerful connections.

The intellectuals have demanded that the State and the Central governments reject the district administration's report, and order a CBI inquiry into Mehta's killing and corruption in NREGP works in the district.

The signatories to the statement include Aruna Roy, Annie Raja, D. Raja, N.C. Saxena, Arundhati Roy, Bunker Roy, Harsh Mander, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bushan, Prof. Babu Mathew, Dunu Roy, Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Nikhil Dey, Maja Daruwala, Prof. Amit Bhaduri and Nirmala Lakshman.

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