Armed with RTI, man gets justice….Viju B
MUMBAI: After 11 years of doing the rounds of the charity commissioner’s office, Qamar S Qazi has emerged victorious in his fight for justice. The 77-year-old Mazgaon resident used the Right To Information (RTI) Act to expose a fraud in an educational charitable trust, which, he alleged was done in collusion with some of the junior staff members at the office of the charity commissioner.
Qamar Qazi, a former assistant commissioner of Customs, was a trustee of Anjuman Tarakki Achara, a charitable educational trust based in Bhendi Bazaar. He was illegally removed from the board by a new management committee, which submitted fake documents to the charity commissioner’s office.
The committee submitted two fake attendance lists of a no-confidence motion with forged signatures, many of them fictitious while others of dead persons, to oust Qamar Qazi. TOI had on February 19, 2007, reported about his struggle for justice.
Last week, based on Qamar Qazi’s complaint, the Dongri police arrested professor A A Qazi, chairman of Cancer Aid Research Foundation and a former corporator, and Riyazuddin Qazi, a BMC engineer.
“It’s a big victory for the RTI Act. I was able to expose the fraud only because I could get incriminating documents from the charity commissioner’s office,” said Qamar Qazi, who despite a bypass surgery, stretched himself to the limit in his pursuit for justice.
On discovering the forgery, Qamar Qazi lodged a criminal complaint against the existing trustees at the additional magistrate’s court, Mazgaon. The court directed the Dongri police to investigate the case. The police report confirmed forgery. The court then ordered the police to file a chargesheet.
Qamar Qazi also filed an RTI query with the joint charity commissioner’s office asking for the status of the case.
The joint commissioner not only initiated a probe, but also said in his report that some members who were shown present in the list were not there. Also, the members did not sign the minutes of the meeting, the report stated.
“The police randomly checked with 48 members from the attendance list and found that 34 neither took part in the meeting nor signed the no-confidence motion papers,” Qamar Qazi said. Though summons were issued and an opportunity was given to the accused to present their case and submit the original papers, there was no response from their side, he added.
The police have so far arrested two of the 13 accused for forgery.
Qamar Qazi said he pursued the case more so because he felt the charity commissioner’s office, which is supposed to be a watchdog for charitable trusts in the state, was silently supporting this fraud.