Uttarakhand: Whistleblower Who Flagged Alleged Graft by BJP Leaders, Externed

Dehradun: Before the 25th anniversary celebrations of Kargil Vijay Diwas (July 26) in Uttarakhand, a state with a majority of households associated with armed forces and a cradle of the famed Garhwal, Kumoan and Gorkha regiments of the Indian Army, a whistleblower who raised the issue of alleged discrepancies in the construction of ‘Sainik Dham’, an appropriate memorial for soldiers in Dehradun, and other alleged disproportionate assets cases of some ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and ministers, was reportedly externed from the district under the Goonda Act, on July 25,2024.

Vikesh Negi, an advocate and Right to Information (RTI) activist, who has been in the forefront of exposing the alleged disproportionate assets cases of some ruling BJP leaders and ministers was reportedly held and externed for six months from Dehradun district. The RTI activist was allegedly getting “too inconvenient” for the ruling BJP government. He was reportedly taken to the boundary of Dehradun district and Tehri district and amidst beating of drums, as has been practice is for hardened criminals, externed for six months.

As per reports, Negi had made life miserable for some ruling BJP leaders and ministers through his exposes with the use of the RTI Act. Earlier, he had charged the Dehradun Mayor and BJP leader Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ of attaining “disproportionate assets” against his known sources of income. Later, he charged Uttarakhand cabinet minister Ganesh Joshi with similar charges. Negi alleged that Joshi received a salary of Rs. 36 lakh and 54 thousand as salary from 2007 till 2023 as a legislator and minister, but in the election affidavit of 2022 Assembly elections, he had declared assets worth Rs. 9 crore. The RTI activist d also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, reminding him of his resolve to fight corruption. He had also urged the state vigilance to take appropriate action against the minister.

But this time, Negi seemed to have touched a raw nerve charging the Uttarakhand BJP government, in which Joshi is the Sainik Welfare Minister, of alleged misappropriation of funds in the construction of Sainik Dham, a soldiers’ memorial. A dream project of Prime Minister Modi, who termed it as the fifth ‘Dham’ after the four revered ‘Char Dhams’ of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, the Rs 49 crore memorial is to be built at Purukul village on the outskirts of Dehradun to honour soldiers.

Negi had publicly alleged that the project, which was to be built by November 8, 2023 at an initial cost of Rs. 49 crore, had overshot the budget and was now pegged at Rs.99 crore. Ironically, the project is nowhere near completion. He also disclosed that most of the money for the project was coming from the Union government but the project was being executed by Uttarakhand Peyjal Sansdhan and Vikas Nirman Nigam, a state government corporation.

Vikesh Negi being felicitated by S.S.Pangti, a former IAS officer, at a function held by Uttarakhand Purv Sainik and Ardh Sainik Sanyukt Sangathan at Tehri on July 28, 2024.    

Negi also alleged irregularities in the grant of tender for the project for which global tenders were not invited. Also, he alleged that the two companies which submitted their bids had got their stamp and papers notarised from the same vendor. These allegations on the soldiers’ memorial reportedly became “too hot” to handle for the ruling BJP, which boasts of hyper-nationalism as its main political plank.     

In an order issued by the Court of District Magistrate, released by Dehradun police, Negi has been found indulging in forcible taking over land, land frauds and other criminal activities in the past. A list of five cases filed against him by the police was also submitted. The Nehru colony police station in Dehradun said that the list of criminal cases against Negi was submitted to the office of District Magistrate and an externment order passed against him.

Earlier, Negi in a Facebook had alleged that he was being targeted for exposing several scams, disproportionate assets cases of some ruling BJP leaders and ministers and other land scams through RTI and PIL’s (public interest litigation) in courts. He sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case. 

Meanwhile, the RTI activist’s internment by the Dehradun police is being questioned by various political parties. A delegation of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), a regional outfit, submitted a memorandum to the Dehradun District Magistrate seeking revocation of his internment order.

  The order of the Dehradun District Magistrate regarding externment of Vikesh Negi.

An-ex-servicemen body in Tehri has also felicitated Negi for his “courage in bringing out alleged corrupt deals of the ruling party.”  The Uttarakhand Purv Sainik and Ardh Sainik Sanyukt Sangathan, in a meeting in Tehri, demanded that the order should be taken back. Chairing the meeting, S.S.Pangti, a former IAS officer, said that the order against Negi was the “worst kind of dictatorship”.

Garima Dasuani, a spokesperson of the Uttarakhand Congress, who had also sought a probe into the alleged ' Sainik Dham”construction scam, said that externment action against Negi was unwarranted and the BJP government should probe the allegations made by him. She said that if Negi had done anything unlawful then the law should take its own course, but questioned as to how many people allegedly involved in far more serious cases had been externed by the BJP government till date.

Indreshj Maikhuri, Uttarakhand secretary of the CPI (ML), has also condemned the government action and sought a probe into the allegations of corruption against senior BJP leaders. Manorath Prasad Dhayani, general secretary of UKD, pointed out how the present BJP government had shown its “fascist and dictatorial attitude” by lodging false cases against Ashutosh Negi who was helping the parents of the murdered young girl Ankita Bhandari at Srinagar Garhwal, and also mentioned implicating one Bobby Panwar, who had taken up corruption in government jobs.       

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.