File affidavit that letter from Mumbai train blasts case IO not in records: CIC to Prez Secretariat

The CIC has directed the President's Secretariat to file an affidavit stating that it has no records of a letter purportedly written by a Mumbai police officer, who supposedly claimed that innocent people were framed in the Mumbai train blasts case.

Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, a convict in the 2006 Mumbai local train bombings case, filed a Right to Information (RTI) application with the secretariat seeking a copy of a letter purportedly written by Inspector Raja Mandge, who, he claimed was the investigation officer of the case.

He claimed that Mandge, through the letter to the president sometime in October or November 2006, had informed that innocent people were falsely implicated in the case.

The President's Secretariat informed Siddiqui that its petitions' cell did not maintain subject-wise record of petitions.

Siddiqui, presently lodged at the Nagpur Central Jail, was awarded capital punishment for the July 11, 2006 serial blasts, when seven bombs went off in as many local trains in Mumbai killing 189 people and injuring 829.

Not getting a satisfactory response from the President's Secretariat, Siddiqui approached the Central Information Commission (CIC), the highest adjudicating body in the country in RTI matters.

In his petition, Siddiqui said the information sought by him was crucial to his life and liberty and that the letter should be traced.

The secretariat told the commission that Mandge's letter was not traceable in the records.

"The commission, after hearing the submissions of both the parties and perusing the records, directs the respondent to file an affidavit with the commission deposing that the letter sought by the appellant vide his RTI application is not traceable in the records of the respondent authority. Hence, no information can be provided to the appellant," Chief Information Commissioner Sudhir Bhargava said.