Slain RTI activist Vinayak Baliga’s sister gets threat calls

Slain RTI activist Vinayak Baliga’s sister gets threat calls

Mangalore Today News Network

Press Release

Mangaluru, July 29, 2020:    Vinayak Baliga, a GSB, an RTI activist and a devotee of Lord Venkataramana Temple and  Kashi mutt  was a person who wanted to bring about more accountability into the amounts collected in the names of these institutions and was fighting for it. He was also a BJP booth level activist. He was brutally murdered in front of his house at around 5.30 am on the 21st March, 2016. His aged parents pining at the loss of their only son passed away. Now his sisters are fighting for justice for their brother by trying to move the courts. The govt machinery and the deaf members of their own community have done absolutely nothing to get justice for him. The accused in the case are out on bail and the investigations are yet to be completed because the trial has not yet commenced. They have also tried to scuttle the appointment of a special public prosecutor. Sisters of Baliga- Anuradha and Harsha have been struggling hard to get justice for their brother.

 

In such an effort Anuradha had filed an application for further investigation with the Commissioner of Police for Mangalore city. This is perfectly legally possible because investigation of a case can proceed until the case is decided. The application was to be heard yesterday(28th July) at 5 pm and she was asked to report to the office. On the night of 27th she got a call from what was shown as a “private number” and the voice at the other end threatened her in Tulu that she will be taken care of if she tries to complain against the accused. She got a number of calls from the same source later but she did not pick them up. The exact words used have been mentioned in her complaint to the Commissioner of Police given on Tuesday. The call was from Dubai and despite of efforts to hide the number we have managed to get it. She went yesterday to complain to the police and when returning she got another such call this time from Malayasia.

Again today’s newspapers have carried a report about the arrest of some one who had made a threatening call to the now transferred deputy commissioner, on the basis of a suo moto case. Here no action is being taken despite the case being a very serious one of threat to a witness. The callers have banked upon a google trick to hide their number not realising that there are ways by which such can be found out too.

This attempt to intimidate the complainant and witness no 1 in a murder case is a serious offence yet action remains pending! While on one hand there are various GSB organisations allegedly fighting for justice for the community there is not a single one coming to the help of a GSB family of only women fighting for justice for their brother! Is it because the accused no 1 in the case is the leader of such battles for justice? There is a FB group called Youth of GSB who have uploaded videos on Youtube for a number of alleged injustices done to the community while none of them have the guts to come out in support of these helpless women!

By Narendra Nayak, Deshapremi Sanghatanegala Okkuta, Mangaluru