Bangalore corporator threatens RTI activist over land dispute

A right to information activist and trade union leader has complained to the police commissioner that a corporator had issued death threats to him.

M Udayashankar, the corporator representing Siddapura and leader of the opposition in the BBMP council, refuted the charge, saying he and the RTI activist, MZ Ali of Wilson Garden, were family friends.

He said they had coffee together at a well-known vegetarian restaurant on Lal Bagh Main Road on Friday.

However, Ali said the corporator threatened him when he went to the restaurant with friends, since he had intervened in a land dispute in Siddapura.

“The corporator knew that I was collecting the details of the land which does not come under the purview of BBMP. He had tried to dissuade me, and later threatened me with dire consequences if I continued the campaign against him. The land in question is close to my house in Wilson Garden but comes under the Siddapura ward,” Ali told commissioner BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji in his complaint.

Udayashankar allegedly  threatened to eliminate Ali, saying nobody could question him since he was close to an MLA, Ramalinga Reddy.

When asked, the corporator denied any wrongdoing. “I had been to MTR for coffee on Friday evening. I had cordial talks with Ali. He is trying to discredit me as I have put a claim on the disputed land, which originally belonged to the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board. He is jealous and I suspect some motive behind his move of submitting an RTI application against me before BBMP,” Udayashankar said.