AN RTI ON THE ALLEGED COLLUSION AMONG DAWOOD-MIRCHI-RKW-DHFL-BJP

Posted on 19th February, 2022

Updated on 12th April, 2022

In connection with our article FALSE ALLEGATIONS ON THE COLLUSION AMONG THE BJP, DAWOOD-MIRCHI AND THE DHFL: A LETTER TO THE BJP PRESIDENT⤡ based on various media reports, we have placed an RTI (to the Ministry of Economic Affairs) on 15.02.2022 for knowing the truth behind the DHFL Scam⤡, i.e., for specifically checking the fact of the collusion among Dawood Ibrahim-Iqbal Mirchi-RKW-DHFL-BJP.

The true copy of our RTI application (along with attachment) are placed below:

1.      It is found in different media reports (to be found in the annexed supporting document) that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is involved in Terror Funding/Political Charity/Political Donation with international gangsters, viz., Dawood Ibrahim and Iqbal Mirchi, regarding RKW DEVELOPERS PRIVATE LIMITED (Dheeraj Realty) and the DEWAN HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION LIMITED (DHFL). Please inform us regarding this case of alleged terror funding.

2.      If those media reports are true, does this case of political charity come under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2002)?

3.      Is there any one-to-one correspondence among the abrupt bankruptcies, truant wilful defaulters and the astronomically increasing of assets of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as reported by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR; to be found in the annexed supporting document)?

4.      If the aforementioned terror funding in the case of the DHFL is not believed to be true, why is not the BJP filing several defamation cases against the media houses that are reporting about the same?

5. Is the biggest financial scam, i.e., the DHFL SCAM (a scam that has deprived thousands of small depositors of their hard-earned life earnings), related to the terror funding that has contributed to the assets of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?

GIVEN BELOW IS A COPY OF THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENT, WHICH WAS SENT ALONG WITH THE ABOVE RTI APPLICATION:

However, though the appeal was initially addressed to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it was immediately forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

SEE ALSO:

CONSEQUENCES OF CRONY AND MONOPOLY CAPITALISM IN INDIA: THE CASE OF DHFL SCAM VIEW HERE⤡

ADDENDA

The RTI reply came on 24th of February, 2022 and is given as follows:

As expected and as predicted, it is found that the RTI authority does not know anything about such scam, which was published in different newspapers and portals. Strange enough, no defamation case or protest on the part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have not been filed or lodged against such alleged terror-funding till date. This conspiracy of silence and the untimely death of the RTI Act are not surprising in the contemporary context of crony and monopoly capitalism and the shadow economy of the Indian republic. We are mourning for the death of RTI as a tool of democratic accountability under the present plutocratic regime.

As instructed in the Reply to our RTI, we wrote on 11.03.2022 to the First Appellate Authority seeking further clarification on the matter of concern raised by us and the reply given to the same. The letter is being provided as follows:

To

Shri Praveen Vashista, IPS,

Addl. Secretary (CTCR Division)

Room No. 193/A-2, North Block, MHA,

New Delhi- 110001

Sub: Appeal to the First Appellate Authority in reference to RTI Reg No. MHOME/R/T/22/00276, dated 16.02.22

Dear Sir,  

This is in response to the reply (F. No. 16013/01/2015/CFT, dated 24/02/2022) sent by Shri Dharmender Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, to my RTI Application (Reg No. MHOME/R/T/22/00276, dated 16/02/2022; the application was initially addressed to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, but was later on transferred to the MHA bearing reference no. DOEAF/R/E/22/00066), wherein I was instructed to communicate with you for further clarification regarding my matters of concern.  

It was mentioned in the said RTI reply that our questions were “hypothetical” in nature and therefore, are not legally tenable under the RTI Act. Let us first try to understand the logico-legal denotation of the term “hypothetical”.

A Hypothetical truth-functional proposition or statement is that in which the antecedent term implies or entails the consequent term, e.g., If there is rain (symbolically substituted by the variable ‘p’), then the street will be wet (symbolically substituted by the variable ‘q’), i.e., in its logical form: p ⊃ q.

So far as my RTI Application is concerned, none of the questions were “hypothetical” (it is to be noted that the RTI reply employed the term “hypothetical” in its common-sense denotation, which is quite different from the logico-legal one as stated above) as our questions had depended on several notable newspaper reports (as far as evidential testability is concerned) on the alleged terror-funding among Dawood Ibrahim-Iqbal Mirchi-BJP-RKW (Dheeraj Realty)-DHFL.

No step has been taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against those reputed newspapers so far. Are those very newspapers, coming under the fourth pillar of democracy, publicly creating or spreading sheer misinformation or rumours to malign the current richest party of India, viz., the BJP? I simply seek clarification at this point.  

As mentioned by Shri Dharmender Kumar in his reply, the Section 2 (f) of the RTI Act (2005) defines “information” as “any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e‑mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force (emphasis added);” Hence, our questions, thoroughly depending on the official press releases or the various newspaper reports, are totally within the scope of the RTI Act.

Therefore, I wish to deploy the Right to Information Act in this regard with the goal for a transparent, free and just society.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay

COPY TO:

1. The CPIO, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

बहुजनहिताय बहुजनसुखाय च॥

(“For the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many”)

After forwarding the above letter to Shri Praveen Vashista, IPS, by speed post, on 23/03/2022, we got our written reply from him on 12/04/2022 by post (the letter was sent on 01/04/2022). The letter is as follows:

This letter shows the premature death of RTI Act (2005) under the plutocracy! No party comes under the RTI act!