Ranjeet Soni
Ranjeet Soni was a human rights defender and Right to Information (RTI) activist from Madhya Pradesh in central India. He consistently filed RTI applications seeking information regarding public works, including information on government expenditure, allocations at government hospitals, and details of road constructions, and subsequently filed complaints and sought redress from government officials for alleged corruptions and other irregularities. On 2 June 2022, Soni was shot dead at close range on a busy road in Vidisha town, just 100 metres from the local police station. Prior to his murder the defender had received threats to withdraw his RTI petitions. The day after his murder, 3 June 2022, he had been due to present evidence to a local court to support one of his complaints.
Human rights defenders making use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act are liable to be killed, assaulted or harassed for exercising their fundamental right to demand and receive information from public authorities. Women HRDs are targeted with gender-specific threats – death, gang rape or acid attacks – both online and offline. They are particularly vulnerable in regions with a heavy presence of the military and armed groups. In the Red Corridor, a region in East India experiencing Naxalite-Maoist insurgency, HRDs, including lawyers, researchers and journalists face acts of intimidation and persecution and work under tremendous pressure from authorities, rebels, and vigilante groups. People defending the rights of marginalised communities such as the Adivasi and the Dalit can encounter death threats, destruction of their properties, fabricated charges, physical attacks, as well as caste-based discrimination by state and non-state actors alike.
