Conspiracy to Craft Fiction of “Hindu Terrorism”

Extreme victimization of a woman renunciant in a conspiracy to craft fiction of “Hindu Terrorism”

(‘Hindu Terrorism” is an oxymoron. – Suresh Vyas)

Sadhvi  Pragya’s interview with Rajat Sharma on an Indian TV show “Aap Ki Adalat ” has stirred the whole humanity. This story of mindless violation of a woman’s rights needs to reach every human being. This crime of depriving a citizen of her rights needs to be condemned by all courts of law. These words of extreme cruelty need to be heard by the open minds of 21st century.

She was arrested on fictitious charges of plotting a conspiracy to carry out Malegaon blasts of September 2008 in the Malegaon region of Nashik district of Maharashtra that had left 4 dead and around 80 injured.

She is not free. She can never live the same life again. She is in extreme pain and she is half-free from the accusation of the crime she never did. She got bail on April 25 2017. She suffered the most inhuman torture for eight years while she could have got bail within half hour back in 2008 on legal grounds. She is a victim of prejudiced minds. Minds that want to make anyone think that any Hindu wearing orange colored clothes  is a criminal. The arrest of Sadhvi Pragya among others was used by the Congress party to fan the theory of “Hindu Terrorism”. Even some members of UPA stated this was an elaborate ploy organized by senior members of the UPA administration. This case was prejudiced by media. Media published articles like ‘Indian Muslims will lose faith in democracy if Sadhvi Pragya walks free’.

On TV, Sadhvi explained the manner in which she was tortured and abused by government officials. She was brutally beaten by male officers with a broad expeller belt, day and night for more than three weeks. Her arms and legs were swollen, which were then immersed in salty warm water, and the beatings resumed. Filthy abuses were turned at her. She was forced to hear objectionable CDs. She was manhandled so she could make a wrong statement of “confession”. This was done in an attempt to implicate senior RSS leaders. Sadhvi also mentioned that she was tortured through sleep deprivation as well which caused her to experience immense psychological trauma as a consequence.

There is no credible evidence that could prove that Sadhvi owned the motorcycle at time of the blast. It is super-ridiculous that police diary entry mentioned the motorcycle was owned by Sadhvi before the motor cycle company gave estimated registration numbers to police for investigation around ownership.

The lead counsel who represented her, Avinash Gupta, proves Sadhvi is innocent and it is tragic she had to see eight years of extreme animal behavior of policemen. Her appeals of bail were repeatedly rejected even though NIA  had failed to find conclusive evidence against her. The fourth appeal rejected in trial court was challenged by Avinash in High court. On studying the facts, Avinash wondered why she did not get bail within half an hour in the first instance itself as Sadhvi met all the criteria needed.

Nashik Rural Police found that a fake number plate was used to ascertain ownership. On 7 October 2008, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Nashik said that they were unable to decipher the chassis number. Three possible engine numbers were forwarded to the motorcycle manufacturing company LML. After about a month, in November, LML said that they did not manufacture any of those three numbers but gave two closely matching numbers. One of which was linked to the motorcycle Sadhvi once owned. All this is not considered reliable evidence since these were based on only estimations. Also, the station diary entry of the police mentioned the registration number belonging to Sadhvi on 11 October 2008. LML gave closing matching numbers in November 2008. This means this was a ploy.

ATS  tortured innocent individuals to give wrong statements about the hatching of conspiracy. Some of them even approached National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with their complaint against the ATS. There is no institutional involvement of any organization or a big figure. However, on the other side it is heard that there is a big fund running in the range of over 100 crore rupees that is used to defend people who are suspected to have been wrongly accused of terror charges based on their religion. Sadhvi did not have any such institutional support.

The case was transferred from ATS to NIA in 2011, when Congress was in power in both Maharashtra as well as in center. There were two blast cases in Malegaon. First in 2006 where a Muslim connection was found approved by ATS. NIA rejected this and implicated Hindus. The same NIA is questioned in Sadhvi’s case today. Why is it very difficult to accept that this was a ploy?

The next few sentences attempt to summarize her infinite pain. To begin with, she was called by ATS to come to Surat to help law and give information about a motorcycle. She was then illegally taken to Mumbai. She was physically and mentally tortured for 13 days in an obscene way. She was surrounded by men and beaten. She was then taken to hotel  and was beaten so badly that her lungs got damaged and she had to be given oxygen for five days. She was secretively moved from one hospital to another during this time. As soon as she was a little better she was sent back to the same place and the same brutal beating continued. She was then taken to Nasik after 13 days and then was shown arrested. She had not eaten anything. Her mouth was tied and she tolerated persistent beatings. She was broken by then. While she was faint her clothes of renunciation (orange clothes) were removed and she was made to wear salwar-kameez . This is a grave insult for a woman renunciant. Without any permission she had to go through Narco-test, Polygraph test, and brain mapping. These tests were repeated after declaring her arrested. With all this beating she has multiple injuries. Her spine is injured. She is unable to sit and stand comfortably. She was given eggs to eat during fifth year of imprisonment in Mumbai. She developed breast cancer. She was taken to various hospitals but she was never given any suitable treatment. She was operated for breast cancer in 2009. She again had some issue in 2010. After removal of MCOCA  she was in Nasik jail. She was sent to a district hospital. Doctors recommended a surgery again. But after MCOCA she was again taken to Mumbai. Since march 2012 she was in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal jail. Even though jail administration wanted her to get treatment police officers humiliated her. She came back from the hospital without getting any treatment a number of times. Situations were made in a way that no hospital wanted giver her suitable treatment. She then decided to refuse to go for any fake treatments. She only resorted to Yoga and Pranayam  in the darkness of captivity.

She could not live a normal life either as a prisoner, as a woman, or as a citizen of India. She used to live as a woman renunciant. Her values, her daily chores, and her promises to be kept as a renunciant everything had to face obscene captivity and torture. Today she is asking humanity what should she do. How should she live her life with the same pride and dignity?

We request the Prime Minister of India to please answer her questions so she finds some solace and comes of the emotional, physical, and spiritual trauma. She cannot walk on her legs but with the support of humane values she can still raise her head high with self-respect which was beaten ruthlessly for eight endless years.

References:
1. https://www.opindia.com/2018/10/i-was-brutally-beaten-abused-deprived-of-sleep-for-24-days-sadhvi-pragya/
2. https://www.opindia.com/2017/06/sadhvi-pragya-should-have-got-bail-in-half-an-hour-senior-advocate-who-fought-her-case/
3. February 10 2013, Panchajanya.

Siddhartha gupta
Naya ganj, Ghaziabad
(India)