WHISTLE BLOWER-CASE NO3

CASE NO.3

Lalit Mehta (1972–2008) was an Indian RTI activist, who was killed brutally near Palamau on May 14, 2008.

A civil engineer by qualification, Lalit, 36, blew the lid off widespread corruption in NREGS in Palamu.He had become a threat to the contractor lobby and corrupt government officials. Social audit of NREGA he undertook under economist Jean Dreze's supervision was proving to be the final nail in the coffin of the contractor lobby. But he was killed just a day before that.

The Chhatarpur Police found his body at Kandaghati in Chhatarpur on May 15. His mutilated body and a belt around his neck suggested he was strangled and his face smashed to deform it beyond recognition. The police buried the body as unidentified the same day. It was later exhumed by his colleagues and taken to his native village, where his last rites were performed.