Forgotten Crusaders

The biggest flaw in our society is that any anger, awareness or revolt is only ephemeral. Any issue is taken up only for it's face value. Once out of sight, the issue as well as its crusaders are soon forgotten and the long fight is left to be fought by their kin. The recent rage against rape isn't any different from that against corruption, black money, blue line, Jessica Lal, Arushi and many others that even I couldn't recall. The issues here are different but there is one common thread that binds it all. They all happened in National Capital Region, where all the news channels have their headquarters.

A Project Director with NHAI gets killed for blowing the lid off a major scam and the CBI arrests poor rickshaw puller as the main accused. No matter how absurd this sounds, its not relevant enough to make the headlines. Eight out of ten people would have completely forgotten or never heard of Satyendra Dubey and the rest two wouldn't be aware of what exactly happened. 

The event was presented by CBI as an attempted robbery. Because Satyendra put up a fight about giving up his briefcase, he was shot. The person accused of actually shooting Dubey with a country-made pistol was Mantu Kumar, son of Lachhu Singh, of Village Katari, Gaya district. Accomplices with him included Uday Kumar, Pinku Ravidas and Shravan Kumar. On September 19, 2005, while the case was being heard in Patna, Bihar in the court of Addl. Session Judge, J M Sharma, Mantu Kumar escaped from the court premises.Similarly, another accused Uday Chaudhury too had escaped from the police custody on December 15, 2006. Both were later rearrested.Two other suspects, Sheonath Sah and Mukendra Paswan, were questioned by the CBI. They were found dead from poisoning on February 1, 2004, within 25 hours of the CBI questioning.

Now if the police is so naive as to not see any connivance in this incidence then surely we are a Banana Republic of Mango people.  The fact that all this could take place in our country ruled by law where justice is our Right, is shameful. We are all guilty of having accepted corruption as a part of our daily life. Such incidents don't stir our soul. We our able to forget the sacrifice of an honest soul. With each such incident where the "real culprits" are left free, we dampen the spirit of anyone who might think of being honest to his job.

This isn't just an isolated case, there has been killing of S.Manjunath who was murdered was sealing a petrol station selling adulterated fuel. He was found on the backseat of a car with 6 bullets in his body. The case is still pending in supreme court.

Human right activist Navleen Kumar was also killed by the land mafia for taking up the cause of the poor in Nalasopara. Yashwant Sonawane, the Additional Collector of Nashik, was burnt to death by kerosene mafia in Manmad, Nashik. The investigation later revealed the Collector-Mafia nexus. Shehla Masood was also killed right in front of her house by hired shooters. The murder remains unsolved.

These are just a few in a long list of those who have sacrificed there lives for the fight against corruption. They deserve some recognition for their courage to take on the powerful system, alone. If you have read this, make sure you read about them. They need to be acknowledged.