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History has always condemned people for speaking the truth. Many a times, when a man has raised his head to point out the truth to the society, the authorities have made sure their lives got difficult. Let’s have a look at such stories, in history, as well as in recent times.

1. Galileo Galilei

The 16th century astronomer, philosopher and mathematician, tried to reestablished the Copernican law with scientific backup and that was his biggest mistake. His logical explanation of the fact that the Sun was at the center of the solar system and the earth, along with other planets, revolved around it was contradicting the earth-centric beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.

Therefore, when Galileo went on with this research in spite of being warned by the Church, the authorities had no option but to send him in exile.

2. Taslima Nasrin

Nasrin, the controversial writer from Bangladesh would write potent verses, chiefly on women’s oppression in an Islamic society during her early days. It was her book, Lajja (Shame) that rattled the sentiments of radical fundamentalists of Bangladesh who announced a bounty to her head.

In 1994, in an interview to The Statesman, Calcutta, Nasrin called for a revision of the Quran and criticized the Sharia Law. She enraged the fundamentalists so much that she had leave Bangladesh, and eventually, even India.

3. Satyendra Dubey

Dubey was in charge of directing the construction project of the National Highway Authority of India at Koderma. An accomplished IES officer, hailing from a poor family, Satyendra Dubey was particular about his incorruptibility.

When he found fraudulence of vast measures evident in the project, he had three engineers suspended and made the contractor rebuild six kilometers of poorly built roads – a huge blow to the road construction mafia. Dubey was shot dead in 2003 and his body was found on the side of the road.

4. Edward Snowden

Snowden, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, exposed the global surveillance program run by the National Security Agency of the United States to the world. Once the world came to know that America, in the name of terrorist monitoring, is procuring every information of the internet activities of the world, Snowden was pressed with charges of espionage and theft of government property which forced him to flee to Moscow.

According to Snowden, employees at NSA often have a merry time circulating personal texts of the entire world.

5. Satish Shetty

Shetty was known to be systematic whistle-blower who had exposed several scams at Maharashtra’s Real Estate areas of Talegaon—Lonavala. He was also the man who had exposed the rampant corruption associated with the construction of the first expressway of the country, the Mumbai – Pune expressway.

Naturally, the truths exposed by Shetty earned him many enemies and on January 13, 2010, he was stabbed to death by a group of assailants.

6. Shehla Masood

Masood was a 38 year old businesswoman who exposed the racket of corruption through the Right To Information Act. An activist who fought for animal rights, Masood had also gone to fast with Anna Hazare at the India Against Corruption campaign.

In 2011 Masood was shot dead by unidentified assailants and the motive is believed to be her constant activism against the illegal diamond mining of the British-Australian, Rio Tinto, allowed by government officials.

7. Alexander Perepilichny

The Russian businessman, Perepilichny exposed several high ranking officials’ involvement in a theft of $220 million from the national treasury. It was one of the biggest international fiasco and was covered by extensively by the media.

Perepilichny fearing for his life, fled to U.K, but eventually, he was found dead on the road by his neighbor. It is believed that he was killed by Treasury theft conspirators.

8. Pravin Mohare

Pravin Mohare worked as a facilitator, mainly procuring film certificates from the Censor Board of India on behalf of film productions. In 2014, Mohare exposed the CEO of Central Board of Film Certification, Rakesh Kumar of his corruption with significant evidence.

Although, Kumar was arrested and Mohare was appreciated for his efforts, he soon lost all the projects he was working on and the CBFC blocked his facilitator ID as well. Today, he works as a vegetable seller at a humble stall in Gorai, Mumbai.

9. Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy

A frequent blogger in the controversial online blog, Mukto-Mona, Niloy was the organizer of the Science and Rationalist Association Bangladesh. His views on secularism and freethinking spread light on the previously murdered bloggers of Bangladesh.

His quest for the truth brought him the very same fate as his predecessors he was fighting for. He was hacked to death on August 7, 2015.

It’s understandable why truth is the last resort these days.

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