[rti4empowerment] Noida cops arrest RTI activist

Noida cops arrest RTI activist   TIMES NEWS NETWORK   Noida: Leading RTI activist and Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal and 50 other activists were allegedly beaten up by Noida Police for "causing disturbance'' outside the assistant registrar's office at Sector 33 in Noida on Friday. Kejriwal and seven others, including NRI Gaurav Bakshi, were arrested. However, when they were being taken to Dasna Jail after being produced in court, the police van returned midway and all charges against them were dropped. The police, however, described the chain of events as "normal'' and according to the rule book.    Kejriwal and another social activist, Swati, said Gaurav Bakshi, who recently returned from the US, and his wife had adopted a baby girl and wanted to get a birth registration done. "They were asked for a bribe of Rs 6,000, which Bakshi refused. So, they were refused a certificate. We decided to protest outside the registrar's office on Saturday. We were demonstrating peacefully near a parking lot when the Noida police, led by a DSP, charged at us all of a sudden. There were no female cops but even the women activists were not spared. They were beaten up with batons,'' claimed Swati. She said Kejriwal was slapped, while the other protesters were thrown on the ground and hit with batons.    Kejriwal, Bakshi and six others were arrested and produced before a city magistrate. "We had to detain the protesters as it was becoming a law and order problem. We did not misbehave with anyone,'' claimed a Sector 24 police station officer. "We acted according to the situation,'' said circle officer Vikas Tripathi.   FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE: Arvind Kejriwal was protesting against an alleged demand for a bribe to give a birth certificate in Noida