Vandana Shukla - Meet Sudesh Kumari, the woman who braved odds to get justice for a sadhvi
NB: This report shows us how difficult it is for ordinary Indian citizens to obtain justice, especially when the wrong-doers are rich and powerful. Moreover it is clear that many police officers and bureaucrats (with honourable exceptions) are willing to disregard their constitutional obligations and oath of office in order to please unscrupulous political personages.
But the report also shows us that there are people willing to fight for their rights in defiance of ruthless intimidation, including false cases, threats of violence and even murder. In the face of a government that encourages vigilantism and is undermining the criminal justice system; Indians owe a debt of gratitude to courageous citizens such as Sudesh Kumari, Ramchandra Chhatrapati and all their friends for protecting our rights and defending our dignity. Let this be a lesson to officials as well as commoners, in or out of uniform. DS
Sudesh Kumari travels
in the general compartment. She is not a known face on TV channels, among
champions of the cause for women. But she works quietly to make democracy tick.
Kumari empathised with the two sadhvis who accused Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim of
sexual exploitation because "the matter was such, how could she not be
with them". It all began when she learnt about the anonymous letter
written by the two women against the Dera head at Sachcha Sauda at Sirsa.
"I continued to talk to her and felt her pain."
In June 2002, the copy
of the anonymous letter came to her, she was the convenor of Jan Sangharsh
Manch (JSM), Haryana. Then on 10 July, the same year, the murder of Ranjit
Singh in Khanpur Koliyan, a village close to Kurukshetra made her realise the
gravity of the situation. She went to see the young sister of Ranjit Singh. The
letter had made it clear that one of the sadhvis, who accused the Baba of rape
was from Kurukshetra whose brother was a member of the powerful state committee
member of the Dera, who later left it.
The young sadhvi was
scared to death. She pleaded Kumari, "My father too would be killed.
Please demand a CBI enquiry in the rape and murder of my brother. The Baba is
too powerful." Then in October 2002, the anonymous letter was published
by Pura Sach, a local newspaper published from Sirsa. On 21
November 2002, Ramchandra Chhatrapati, the editor of the paper was also
murdered.
This confirmed beyond doubt who was behind the murders and why. The
Dera wanted to silence the people fearing the contents of the letter would
become public. When no media house published the letter, with the help of the
Haryana Union of Journalists, Kumari and her friends observed a condolence
meeting in honour of Chhatrapati and asked people to take an oath to help the
victim’s family. People promised but things didn't move. Irked, they published
a four-page pamphlet and distributed it in thousands to the general public. The
pamphlet recounted circumstantial evidence of Baba’s involvement in rape and
murder. Men arrested for both murders had guns registered in the name of Dera,
one of the accused arrested in Chhatrapati’s murder was the body guard of Baba.
In December 2002,
during Geeta Festival, when lakhs throng Kurukshetra, JSM decided to distribute
pamphlets and present the demand for CBI enquiry from the visiting vice
president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the sexual exploitation case of the
sadhvis. Instead, the local police arrested the members of the Manch, headed by
the JSM convenor, and didn't let them come out till the vice-president was in
town.
This incident made
them aware of the might of the man they were fighting, he had the state in his
pockets. They organised themselves and worked on a three pronged strategy;
organise camps to take public signatures, put posters on buses and public
places, distribute the pamphlets and organise protests. They organised
signature camps at Pipli, Sonipat, Hisar, Kaithal, Jind, Rohtak etc., leaving
Sirsa, where they were threatened for life.
On 5 February, 2003,
when they were peacefully holding a camp in Fatehabad to collect people’s
signatures a mob from the Dera attacked them, took away women’s chunnis,
snatched their purses and earrings. Even the bus fare they had with them was
taken away, the glue used for posters was smeared on their face. All the papers
with public signatures were torn before them. When they called the police, the
cops instead arrested all 14 members of JSM, nine women and five men, on
charges of attempt to murder. Sections 307, 303, 149 and 148 were slapped on
the peaceful team. The charge was that
they beat members of Dera with serious injuries to life, certified by a
government doctor. They had no lawyer, but Harjit Sigh Sandhu and a few more
lawyers fought their case without taking a penny for six long years.
"The Bar
Association of Fatehabad and Kurukshetra demanded in one voice our release,
still the charge sheet produced by police used section 307 against us. But
people had seen what happened, they supported us. The young sadhvi, who was
shaken after her brother’s murder, and was also facing problems in her personal
life said when we were released, "Why did you go to jail for me?"
Harjinder Kaur was
only a college student when she went to jail under 307 and Bhuvnesh was a
student of class 11, now he is a doctor. "Our courage gave
her hope, she was wavering fearing for her father’s life, but after this
incident, she stood firm like a rock. You know how difficult it is for an
Indian woman to go to a police station under normal circumstances. She was
standing against the might of a man supported by the state machinery," the
JSM convenor said. "Wouldn't I feel
dead inside if I left her? I could never know what it's like to be in her
shoes. I could only walk with her," Kumari said.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/gurmeet-ram-rahim-jailed-meet-sudesh-kumari-the-woman-who-braved-odds-to-get-justice-for-a-sadhvi-3999487.htmlsee also
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
