VELLORE: Police booked cases against four persons for allegedly assaulting two youth, one of whom had filed an RTI query regarding the number of new bore wells and pipeline connections in their village in Nemili.
According to police, S Venkatesan (27), a differently-abled person, is a resident of Keel Veethi village in Arakkonam and the secretary of Illainagar Narpani Mandram in the area.
The mandram members decided to file a RTI query in the Nemili BDO office in early March to know about the number of bore wells sunk by the panchayat in the last three months, in order to address the water scarcity issues in the locality.
On behalf of the mandram, one Sivakumar filed the RTI query and got a reply from the BDO office.
Apparently angered by the duo’s action, Keel Veethi panchayat president Sivagaminathan reportedly hired goons to attack Sivakumar and Venkatesan.
“Our narpani mandram president filed an RTI query in BDO office regarding the number of new bore wells and pipeline connections so, Keel Veethi panchayat president arranged four hooligans who are his close associates and attacked me and my mandram president for no reasons. He is still following our activities with the help of his aides,” said Venkatesan speaking to Express over phone.
Venkatesan petitioned the district collector regarding the issue during a grievance day meet early this month but officials directed him to lodge a police complaint.
Accordingly, Venkatesan then lodged a complaint and a case was registered in the Nemili police station on Sunday against the alleged attackers, S Rajkumar, A Ramaraj, S Nagappan and another unidentified man.