New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has sought from the CRPF detailed records related to a report submitted to the force by its Inspector General Rajnish Rai about a "fake encounter" in Assam in 2017. The commission's directive came on a plea of a journalist who had sought the disclosure of the report on the grounds that alleged extra judicial killings were violation of human rights and did not come under the exemption given to the CRPF from making disclosures under the RTI Act.
In response to his RTI query seeking a copy of the report on the fake encounter by a joint squad of security forces in Assam in which two persons were killed in cold blood, the CRPF cited Section 24 of the RTI Act to deny its disclosure.
The section exempts the CRPF and other listed organisations from ambit of the RTI Act, but it does not apply when the information sought pertains to allegations of human rights violation and corruption.
In such a scenario, the disclosure depends on whether any of the exemption provisions of the RTI Act is applicable or not.
During the hearing on the issue, the CRPF, which had earlier not applied any of the exemption clauses under Section 8 of the RTI Act while rejecting the petition, started citing every possible exemption clause under the statute.
"Having heard the parties...the commission is of the view that the appellant has made a prima facie case warranting disclosure of information sought, by bringing it within the ambit of first proviso of Section 24 of the RTI Act," Information Commissioner Azad has said.