When the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), charged with both investigation and intelligence gathering, is well within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, can the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) be excluded from it?
So, when this correspondent filed a petition with the Home Department to seek information on crime gangs from Maharashtra active in Gujarat, it was transferred to the CID (Crime).
Interestingly, the agency took refuge behind a State Government circular, dated October 25, 2005, barring it from the implementation of the act.
The application comes in the wake of State Government’s disclosure to Gujarat MPs that they press the Centre to expedite passage of the Gujarat Control of Organized Crime (GUJCOC) Bill, 2004, as a number of criminal gangs had shifted base in the State from Maharashtra. The argument was that after the neighbouring state implemented Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA), the gangs were finding it easy to operate from Gujarat.
Understandably, the government had information on the gangs.
Hence, the application under the act was made before Secretary (Law and Order) G C Murmu, seeking to know from the Home Department how many and which organized crime gangs from Maharashtra were active in Gujarat.
Yet, the secretary transferred the application to the PIO of CID (Crime and Railways), sending a forwarded copy to Express Newsline.
The in-charge PIO of CID (Crime and Railways) Anil Pratham, who is also Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), replied to the petition on February 20, saying that the information sought needed to be gathered from various districts under the agency’s jurisdiction, the process for which has been initiated.
The reply also said that owing to various districts involved, the process to accumulate information will need more time than the mandated period under the RTI Act.
However, three weeks later, another reply came from the CID (Crime and Railways), this time written by DIG Meera Ramniwas. The letter says that a Home Department circular dated October 25, 2005 has excluded CID (Crime and Railways) from the ambit of the RTI Act, 2005.
Given this, the question of the agency replying to this paper’s petition does not arise.
Interestingly, a copy of the reply sent to the Secretary (Law and Order) says that information sought is being attached for the use of the Home office.
The Gujarat Assembly had passed GUJCOC Bill in 2003. Following recommendations by the Union Home Ministry, it made amendments accordingly and passed again it in June 2004.
The UPA came to power in May 2004 and the Bill is pending since then with the Centre.