On 10 August 2015 Jawahar lal Tiwary was kidnapped and murdered in Bangara Nizamat village, Bihar. His body was found on the 14 cut into five pieces. The 63 year old was a Right to Information(RTI) activist and had been a social worker for 35 years. After severe flooding in Bihar in 2012 he formed Sahebganj Vikash Morcha (Sahebganj development front) to secure relief and aid for the victims of the floods.

Tiwary was the secretary of the development front and submitted more than 30 RTI requests as well as organising a hunger strike in order to expose irregularities in the distribution of the flood relief fund. He had also used RTI applications to highlight the extrajudicial killings of civilians in Jharkhand by paramilitary forces in 2011. Further to this he was involved in exposing over 10 grain distribution scams under a public scheme.

On the 10 August Tiwary had gone to the Sahabganj Block Development Office  to complain about the distribution of food to ration card holders. At the office he was threatened by Brij Kishore Singh who told him that if he didn’t cease his activities he would be murdered. As he travelled home on his bicycle Tiwary was knocked down by a car carrying several men. The group bundled him into the vehicle and fled to the south. His body was found 4 days later cut into five pieces in the Gandak river.

Since India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act was enacted in 2005, at least 45 RTI activists have been killed and over 250 assaulted, harassed, or threatened, according to local groups.