Jaipur, January 17: Two RTI petitioners got shock of their lives after they received sealed packets of used contraceptives, instead of answers from their village panchayat on development projects. Both the petitioners – Vikas Chaudhary and Manohar Lal, residents of Hanumangarh district in Rajasthan – have sought answers from their village panchayat on alleged corrupt practices in the development projects undertaken since 2001.

The petitioners allege that the reply under the Right to Information Act was supposed to come within 30 days, but they received the response only a few days ago. However, the mysterious parcel didn’t carry the answers, but used condoms. Both the petitioners had filed the RTI on April 16 last year. Adding on, the petitioners claim that the village panchayat sent the reply on the orders of the state information commission.  Amul Sends Notice to Google India Over 'Fraudulent Franchise Advertisements'.

Receiving the RTI reply first, Choudhary along with Lal called the Block Development Officer (BDO) to their village to show what’s in the packet, but the latter refused to come. Speculating something suspicious, both the petitioners called the villagers and opened the parcel in front of them. They also filmed the entire incident to prove their case.

"However, the BDO declined to come to our place, and hence we opened the packet in the presence of other villagers and filmed the incident," said Chaudhary, as quoted by IANS. He added that other packet also contained used contraceptives packed in a newspaper.

Taking cognisance of the report, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hanumangarh Zila Parishad, Navneet Kumar, said that an investigation had been ordered to get to the bottom of the matter. He further added that the incident might have happened due to the rivalry between two groups in the village and suspects sarpanch of the village behind this.

He said, “Gopiram, BDO, Bhadra, has carried out an investigation in this matter. He has spoken to sarpanch and other village officials. The sarpanch claimed that a few men have been playing foul against them and hence they will get the FIR registered against these men. They keep threatening us as well as officials in the name of RTI and send unnecessary queries.”

Gopiram claimed that he had taken cognisance of the incident and the matter will be investigated thoroughly. The Bhadra SDO also claimed that if a government employee is found involved in the incident, strict action will be taken. But the sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Chhani Bari alleged the petitioners themselves had sent the condoms.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 17, 2019 10:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).