Police comes to Ambabhikshu House to collect Evidence of Sexual Harassment

In spite of the FIR registered by the police and the arrest of Girish Panda, who had been let out on bail on the surety given by a trustee as reported in the newspaper, our sexual harassment continued.

On 13.10.2014 at about 5.00 p.m. Rajyashri, Nivedita and myself received fresh pornographic cartoons and there was urine everywhere around our rooms. We called the police because they wanted to collect the evidence by themselves and they also took statement from witnesses. Matriprasad, Prabhakar Rupanagunta @ Batti, Purushottam Kothari, Prabhu Dayal Jena and others, were not only stopping the resident-inmates of Ambabhiskshu House from entering but also requesting inmates to leave the premises so that the police could not question them. Only their chosen inmates like Vishwanathan and Ushma, an unmarried couple, came forward to misdirect the police and interfere with their investigation. Anyway the police collected all the evidence, took videos, photos and statements of those present and left.

The police also had a summon for Arunashri in the case filed for the FIR No.213/2004 which was for asking her to present the pornographic chits received by her to the police. But they told her not to come since they had already collected enough evidence and fresh pornographic chits. The originals of 5 pornographic chits received by us are still available with us and 3 are with the police.

Mrs. Poornima Advani Asks SWC to Investigate Five Sisters’ Complaint

We sent our complaint to NCW, New Delhi, through RPAD, because there was no State Commission either of NCW or of NHRC at Pondicherry.

Mrs. Poornima Advani, Chairperson of NCW, New Delhi, has come to Pondicherry in the first week of October to form the State Women’s Commission at Pondicherry (SWC). Our lawyers, Mrs. V. Usha and Mr. Cyril Vincent, managed to get an appointment with her on 05.10.2004. We five sisters met Mrs. Poornima Advani at Hotel Annamalai International at about 2.30 pm. Our lawyers presented our case and Mrs. Advani was shocked at the situation prevailing in the Ashram (also check link http://ncw.nic.in/pdfReports/Gender_Profile_Pondicherry.pdf) and she said that our condition was worse than bonded laborers.

The same evening State Women Commission at Pondicherry (SWC), was inaugurated and Mrs. S. Kamalini was appointed as its first Chairperson. Our complaint dated 06.08.2004 sent by RPAD to NCW was handed over to SWC and investigation has been ordered.

We really hope to get justice and pray that now the sexual harassment faced by us will stop.

Police Dictates Complaint for Registering FIR

On 04.08.2004 Arunashri wrote a letter to Managing Trustee informing him about the molestation and their failure to protect her. She then sent a complaint on 05.08.2004 to the Pondicherry Police through RPAD. This complaint has been totally denied by the police but we have A/D Card to prove that the police did receive this complaint but failed to act. All of us were being continually harassed and even our various possessions like cycle, footwear and door locks were being broken, damaged and tampered with on a day-to-day basis. We were totally traumatized yet the SP North of Pondicherry one Firoz Zia Hussain, failed to act in spite of repeated oral complaints and visits to the police station requesting for relief.

It is an open secret that the trustees pay hafta to the Pondicherry Police and many of them regularly visit the Trust Office for personal gains.

On 16.09.2004 Arunashri’s room had been tied with wire and rope. She went with Jayashree to the police station and did not budge till they had taken down her complaint and registered an FIR. They were made to wait in the police station till 9.00 p.m. by SHO Varadarajan. Her complaint on which FIR No.213/2004 was registered on 17.09.2004 had been dictated by the police to suit their convenience and unfortunately it did not contain all the grievances of Arunashri.

On 19.09.2004 police came to arrest Girish Panda. He took time to appear before the police and in the afternoon he went with Nirmal Swain to the police station.

Arunashri Prasad Attempted to be Molested

From May 2004 Jayashree Prasad and Arunashri Prasad started facing sexual harassment. The harassment was masterminded by Nirmal Chandra Swain, the inmate advocate who got his degree through dubious means so it is rumored. His co-conspirators were Girish Panda, Santosh Nayak, Krishna Chandra, Shankar@Sajjal Mitra etc. It was the same group of men who were responsible for assaulting Jayashree on 09.01.2001.

The sexual harassment by these men began at first by urinating in from of their rooms, many times during the day and also by passing vulgar comments and making vulgar gestures and sending pornographic cartoons. Later other sisters were also made victims. On 13.06.2004 Jayashree and Arunashri complained before the Bar Association at Pondicherry since it involved a lawyer and the President of the Bar Mr. Bhaktavachalam, who was appearing for the trustees in my criminal case, requested the trustees to stop this indignity. However his advice was not followed. Over many weeks repeated requests were made but to no avail.

On 26.07.2004 we five sisters met the trustees during their Trust Board meeting and they denied having received any complaint from us. In fact Dilip Datta (Trustee) and Manoj Das (Managing Trustee) Gupta suggested that it was the work of an artist on seeing the pornographic cartoons and he also commented that these men were saints and were leading a pious life. He was trying to hint at two things – (1) Arunashri is an artist and that she was the one doing these drawings and (2) that we sisters were not leading pious lives because we were protesting against their mal-administration and had many cases filed and pending against the trustees including criminal case for defamation.

Then on 03.08.2004 Chandramani Patel, who is Arunashri’s neighbor, tried to molest her. She somehow escaped and ran to Jayashree’s room and spent the night trembling with fright.

Trustees Prejudiced Stand

After facing about 2 months of harassment, after giving written complaints to Mr. Bhaktavachalam and Mr. Uday Bhaskar (trustees’ lawyers and office bearers of Bar Association, Pondicherry) and approaching the Ashram trustees through them, today we were finally constrained to personally take our complaints to the trustees during their Trust Board meeting and voice our grievance.

All the five trustees of Ashram viz. Manoj Das Gutpa, Dilip Datta, Albert Patel @ Avinash, Prabhakar Rupanagunta @ Batti and Veda Prakash Johar, the advisory members viz. Chirta Sen, Vishweshwar Dundur, along with Matriparasad, Purushottam Iyengar, were present during our meeting with the Trust Board of Ashram.

At first the trustees did not want to hear us out because of the various already pending litigations between us. They even asked us to move the court of law instead of approaching them. They did not wish to see the pornographic chits received by us.  The only person who seemed inclined to listen to us was Veda Prakash Johar. Perhaps he realized what a mistake he had made by not coming forward to help Jayashree when she was assaulted.

The only woman there, Chitra Sen, exclaimed that if she saw these chits it would affect her modesty, therefore she desisted. Being a 70+ old lady when she felt threatened by merely looking at the chits, imagine our condition, and we replied her to this effect.

Manoj Das Gupta, Dilip Datta and Matriprasad observed that it was a work of an artist. (you can judge for yourself, chits are attached). This remark was aimed at Arunashri who is an artist and who was the first one to receive these pornographic cartoons. Arunashri told them unequivocally that if it was the work of an artist then all present should frame these works of art and put them in their drawing room in appreciation. Since the trustees found these drawings to be so beautiful we even suggested that these pornographic chits should be framed and put in prominent places of the Ashram for public viewing.

Manoj Das Gupta and Dilip Datta even commented that these men were sadhaks and could not do such things. Are we to take it to mean that we are not sadhaks? In fact, if my memory serves me right, Manoj Das Gupta is a known womanizer who maintains and entertains a harem full of women, his queen being Manjushri Chatterjee who attempted suicide when he tried to leave her. He cannot see a beautiful woman and talk to her without touching her. His well-known spicy exploits are legendary. When he is the one setting the trend for the male-inmates of Ashram, should one really not laugh at his blatant partiality towards his henchmen?

In fact as 22.07.2004 when Nivedita received the first pornographic chit carrying the initials G+N where Girish expressed his desire for her, she went to meet Manoj Das at about10.30 pm. (Padmashri Awardee inmate, ex-trustee of Ashram Trust, present Trustee of Ashram Udyog Trust, known Indian writer). He outright told her that she should not expect either the trustees or him to help her since she has filed cases against the trustees.

There is still Justice in Judiciary

The acceptance of the suit O.S. No.668/2002 is challenged by the trustees. As per them my legal remedy lies only before the Madras High Court. I manage to get orders to the effect that I can challenge Mr. Menon’s impugned undated report at Pondicherry.

Meanwhile C.S. Narasimhan, trustees’ lawyer, gives oral undertaking before the court that food and shelter for me will not be disturbed. Yet lo and behold! I am denied food at Ashram Dining Room.

On 22.12.2002 I go for breakfast and I am denied food by Prafulla Kumari @ Pappu, Dining Room in-charge. My plate of food is snatched from me and in no uncertain terms I am told to leave. Luckily for me, or so I think, I see Mr. Narasimhan eating at Dining Room, which is his regular practice. I approach him and ask him to intervene to prevent violation of his undertaking. He shouts at me and asks me to approach the court. The beauty of the whole drama is that since Mr. Narasimhan gave an oral undertaking and since his clients, namely the trustees, are totally unethical, Mr. Narasimhan has also chosen to become unethical. So when the case comes before the Hon’ble Judge he denies having ever given such an undertaking. Amazing!

Anyhow after a thorough enquiry I am at last given final order of status quo on 31.12.2002. Everything, except the ‘Prosperity’ is restored to me. I am deeply grateful and wish to thank Mrs. Rajalakshmi, the Hon’ble Judge of the I ADM, Pondicherry, who upheld justice in spite of crushing pressure to the contrary.

Suresh Chandra De (retd. IPS) Comes to his senses – Thank God

After still more vague Order dated 29.10.2001 passed by Mr. Justice P.D. Dinakaran in C.R.P. No. 2230/2001 & No. 2534/2001 in O.S.No.253/2001, trustees proceeded to conduct an enquiry against my four elder sisters while O.S. No.253/2001 was still pending. The trustees appointed one Mr. Suresh Chandra De, a retired police officer who had settled in Pondicherry, as the enquiry officer.

Suresh De, without going into the facts and circumstances of the case, issued my four elder sisters notice of enquiry. We issued a Legal Notice to Suresh De against this enquiry but he did not desist. We were constrained to file an interim petition in O.S. No.253/2001 against the trustees and Suresh De, for directing them to stop this enquiry.

The trustees rushed to the Madras High Court and filed a contempt petition. Trustees issued us personal notice informing us to be present when the matter would be heard by Mr. Justice P.D. Dinakaran. We appeared on 27.11.2002 and Matriprasad was also present in the court hall. Justice Dinakaran loudly asked Matriprasad from his high seat demanding to know why we ladies had been called since he had not issued any notice of contempt. Matriprasad had no reply.

Thereafter Mr. Justice Dinakaran orally directed Matriprasad that matters should be settled out of court by the trustees. A series of attempts for reconciliations were made but since the trustees repeatedly denied having caused us harassment and victimization, all the attempts failed. 

Good sense has prevailed at last as Mr. Suresh Chandra De desists from conducting any enquiry and we also did not press our interim petition against him in good faith.

Today Justice P.D. Dinakaran has dismissed the Contempt Petition filed by the trustees and no contempt was recorded against my four elder sisters.

Illegal Service of Notice

I filed O.S. No.668/2002 on 14.11.2002 challenging Mr. N.P.K. Menon’s impugned undated report. And today I can say that my apprehensions have proved right.

Together with O.S. No.668/2002 I filed an interim petition in I.A. No.2937/2002 for interim injunction to restrain the trustees from taking any action based on the perverse report of Mr. Menon. Injunction has been granted and status quo has been directed as an inmate of the Ashram.

But the trustees have to act in their highhanded manner to maintain their un-slackened track record of harassment. So Matriprasad and Nirmal Swain got hold of two probationers and pasted a backdated show cause notice on my door at Ambabhiskhu House, knowing fully well that O.S. No.668/2002 has been filed and exparte interim injunction of status quo has been granted through I.A. No.2937/2002. 

This was done simply to intimidate and harass me and humiliate my family.

Constitution of Civil Suit in O.S. No.668/2002

A third enquiry (by the trustees’ count) was constituted for the same alleged misconduct leveled against me by the trustees – 

1. “in camera enquiry” (no documents as yet produced to show its proceedings)
2. Mr. K. Natarajan’s enquiry having Vijay Poddar as presenting officer (report not furnished though concluded)
3. Mr. Menon’s enquiry illegally initiated by Madras High Court because of trustees’ deliberate misrepresentation, leniency shown due to spiritual institution, and …sous-entendu.

All the three enquiries found me to be guilty though no evidence was produced. In fact Mr. Menon went to the extent to state that it did not matter who made me pregnant without first ascertaining the fact whether I was pregnant. As per him I could have been made pregnant by Manoj Das Gupta himself if I so chose to claim.

And even better was the hilarious conclusion which Mr. Menon came to that having become pregnant in the end of year 2000 (implying November or December 2000) I was found to be 6-7 months pregnant by 10.01.2001 (implying within 2-3 months). As per Mr. Menon’s conclusion I have achieved a medical miracle!

It is also interesting to note that Matriprasad was the presenting officer for the trustees since Vijay Poddar, Sri Aurobindo Society, did not wish to be dragged into their nasty web at the cost of his reputation for a second time.

Mr. Menon submitted to my lawyer at Madras/Chennai a copy of the perverse undated report. On 08.11.2002 I collected this perverse report. Knowing fully well the modus operandi of the trustees, before they could take action based on the impugned report and expel me for a third time (by trustees’ count) I challenged the same today by filing O.S. No.668/2002 before the Hon’ble I Additional District Munsif at Pondicherry. 

Madras High Court Shows Leniency – Miscarriage of Justice

The trustees categorically maintained in all their correspondence and pleadings filed in O.S. No.215/2001 that only after conducting an “in camera enquiry” Hemlata was sought to be expelled from the Ashram. The trustees however have failed to produce any documentary evidence of this alleged enquiry proceedings till date.

In fact, in all their correspondences and pleadings relating to and filed in O.S. No.215/2001, the trustees have subtly and cunningly altered their concocted story to make it more and more plausible. Only hearsay and alleged confessions have been taken recourse to for building up their defamatory concoction.

To cover up their lapse the trustees decided to illegally constitute a second enquiry by appointing one Mr. K. Natarajan, retired district Judge, with Vijay Poddar of Sri Aurobindo Society as the presenting officer. I was issued with notice for appearance and I refused to participate since O.S. No.215/2001 was pending and since the trustees had vehemently claimed that an “in camera enquiry” had been conducted. I challenged the constitution of this enquiry in O.S. No.215/2001 through an interim petition in I.A. No.2672/2001 and the Hon’ble Court directed the trustees to continue with the enquiry proceedings.

But the self-proclaimed incarnates of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, namely the trustees, are a law unto themselves, who obey and give a damn for nobody but themselves and their self-interests. So Mr. Natarajan and Mr. Vijay Poddar were told to proceed with the enquiry. It was completed and even a report finding me guilty, so I am told, had been produced. But I have not been furnished with a copy of this enquiry’s report.

Now the trustees did not like to be told that they cannot conduct a second enquiry parallel. So they approached the Hon’ble Madras High Court. Mr. Justice R. Balasubramanium, entertained C.R.P. No.787/2002, filed by the trustees. Mr. Sri Ram Panchu (senior lawyer) and Mr. C.A. Diwakar, trustees’ lawyers misrepresented before the High Court that the trustees had only conducted an “informal enquiry” and being a spiritual institution and ignorant about the ways of the world, the trustees inadvertently made a mistake. Wrongly gaining the sympathy of the High Court and also through deliberate misrepresentation, the court showed leniency and allowed them to conduct an enquiry (third on trustees count) by appointing Mr. N.P.K. Menon, a retired District Judge. The trustees were also directed to pay an initial sum of Rs.15,000/- to Mr. Menon. How much will really be paid is anyone’s guess…

The miscarriage of justice occurred when Justice Balasubramaniam summarily terminated my suit at Pondicherry, in O.S. No.215/2001, without even going into the merits of the case and conducting a trial.