RTI activist Bhaskar Prabhu, convener of Mahiti Adhikar Manch, Mumbai, who was nominated by the Maharashtra’s Information Commission, told me that a background check was carried out on him too. According to him, IB sleuths called up one of his long-time associates, Vijay Kumbhar, to enquire about him. “The official asked me about Prabhu’s politics and his views on the current dispensation,” said Kumbhar, adding that all of this is very strange and is happening for the first time. “This is an annual event – and I have attended it in the previous years, but nothing of this sort has happened,” said Kumbhar, who too was nominated by the state Information Commission.