Dismissing the cases in Lucknow on Friday, Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Information Commissioner Justice M A Khan (retired) observed, “Lokesh Batra and his agents have been conniving against the Noida Authority.”

Khan had taken over both cases involving contempt of Senior Information Commissioner Gyanendra Sharma’s orders by the Noida Authority.

The cases referred to the Noida Authority’s failure in providing “enough information” on Nithari’s sanitation and management.

RTI activist Commodore Lokesh Batra had a day before said that he suspected “foul play” by the state information commissioner. “Taking away cases from a senior information commissioner, a veteran journalist (Gyanendra Sharma) known for his honesty who has been questioning the Noida Authority for contempt of his orders, is worrying,” Batra said. “The hearings at the Senior Information Commission’s office in Lucknow were postponed due to a lax attitude and hasty cover-up attempts by the Authority after the Nithari killings were unearthed.”

Meanwhile, the drains and backlanes at Ground Zero in Nithari are still in the same condition as when the skeletons were unearthed last December. Newsline found the area behind D-5, blocked between houses D-1 and D-17, where the bodies were unearthed, filthy. The encroachment by house number D 4 is also still intact.

As reported by Tehelka earlier, a group of children had found flesh in the back lane while looking for their ball during a game of cricket. The lane was earlier used as a passage by locals.Recalling the incident, Manoj, who made the discovery, says, “We found lots of flesh and reported it to the police. But we were told to never play around that area again.”

The Noida police had dismissed the flesh they had come across as animal carcass. That passage is still blocked.

Ram Kishen, whose four-year-old son was among those killed in D-5, says, “I work for the Noida Authority and in spite of regular requests, no one is bothered about taking care of the place.”