Rinku Singh Rahi (born 1982) is an Indian whistleblower and PCS officer fighting against corruption in sponsored welfare schemes in Uttar Pradesh (UP). He was shot six times by local gangsters, damaging his jaw and the vision of one eye, for exposing corruption.
Background
Rinku Singh Rahi has been fighting corruption in his own department and state-run schemes since 2009. He was denied access to information on his own department. Instead, an attempt on his life was made allegedly at the behest of Principal Secretary Navtej Singh, and other department officials during the Mayawati government. He started a hunger strike in Lucknow hoping the Akhilesh Yadav government would pay heed to his demands for a reply on his pending RTI application; a criminal investigationinto the corruptions charges; and act against miscreants but instead was admitted to a psychiatric ward.
Life and early career
He was born at Aligarh in a lower middle-class family on 20 May 1982. He did his elementary schooling in Aligarh and completed his BTech degree in Metallurgy at NIT, Jamshedpur in 2002. In the same year, he scored All India 17th rank in GATE that assured him a seat in his desired stream at any top technological institute. He opted for a civil service career instead. In pursuit of his objective, he undertook various civil services examinations/interviews. Having passed the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Civil Services examination in 2004, he was posted as District social welfare officer at Muzaffarnagar in 2008.
He showed interest in social development from his early years and took initiative in establishing a "Library" and "Adult education center" at Aligarh. He was then posted as a coordinater at the state-run coaching institute for IAS and IPS aspirants from the Dalit community at Aligarh.
As of 2012 he is posted in Badhohi constituency of Sant Ravidas Nagar district as a social welfare officer.
Muzaffarnagar welfare fund corruption scandal
The social welfare department at Muzaffarnagar distributed over annually to beneficiaries under various state-run welfare schemes. Rahi ordered an inquiry into the allocation of funds over the last five years, soon after he arrived. He found serious discrepancies: Out of the allocated funds to be distributed as part of Old-age pension scheme, money was taken for 62,447 people but only 47,707 beneficiaries received it. Each beneficiary is entitled to 3,600 rupees annually. There were no records for distributed to 22,000 OBC students and distributed to all BPLF families and General category – other than OBC, SC, ST, and Minorities.
Rahi complained to his seniors and also informed Bhuvneesh Kumar, a District Magistrate of Muzaffaranagar, about the irregularities. Kumar said that a few days before the attack Rahi had told him of the irregularities, and had planned to computerise a record of what he had discovered, but he could do that, he was attacked.
RTI request
Rinku Singh filed a Right to Information (RTI) application on 28 November 2007, but never received a reply within the mandatory period of 30 days. He followed up by filing a complaint at Central Information Commission (CIC) under section 18 of the commission. CIC issued a notice to Public Information Officer (PIO) for explanation and demanded he supply the information within the mandated time. PIO replied to CIC on 2 February 2009. CIC then directed PIO to provide the information on two of five queries. CIC rejected the remaining three queries, claiming they did not fall within the definition of "Information" as defined in the RTI Act.
Armed attack
After Rahi's complaints, armed miscreants shot him six time when he was playing badminton on the morning of 26 March 2009. His jaw was severely damaged and he lost the vision of one eye, but survived.
Police found that the attack was carried out by local gangsters at the behest of welfare department officials. Police arrested nine people, including Mukesh Chaudhary, a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, and Ashok Kashyap, an assistant accountant at the welfare department. According to police, Mukesh Chaudhary was annoyed that Rahi did not sanction scholarships for some students and Ashok Kashyap was annoyed as Rahi had ordered a departmental inquiry into the alleged corruption.
Kumar issued an order to attach the property of Chaudary, who had been enriched by over five years.