Thaindian News

Ahmedabad, July 20 (IANS) Leading Right to Information (RTI) activist Amit Jethwa was shot dead opposite the high court building here Tuesday night, police said.
Jethwa had just come out after meeting his lawyer and was getting into his vehicle parked near the office of the state bar council, opposite the Gujarat High Court, when two unidentified people on a motor cycle fired a single shot at him.

According to eyewitnesses, Jethwa, who was seriously injured, pounced on the two, toppling them from the motor cycle and tried to hold them. The two, however, fled leaving behind their motorcycle, the revolver and a bag.

Jethwa died on the spot even as an ambulance was being called. His body has been moved to the government civil hospital for autopsy, a police official said.

Jethwa, who was also president of the Gir Nature club, had only recently filed a public interest lawsuit in the high court against the mining mafia operating in the Sasan Gir area.

Among other cases taken up by Jethwa was the appointment of two additional information commissioners to hear RTI appeals which had piled up. This was accomplished after the court’s intervention. He had also sought the court’s intervention for filling up the long vacant post of Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) in the state.