Kanhaiya Singh
IBN Live, November 11, 2007
Mumbai: With broken ribs and a fractured leg, Father Victor Pareira is just one of the 25 victims, who were brutally beaten up allegedly by members of Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, an oraganisation affiliated to the VHP.
“My rib is fractured and my leg is broken. I am undergoing a lot of pain,” Pareira said.
What is even more shocking is that the injured priest had to travel over 30 kilometers to meet the Director General of Police to demand justice as the local police station failed to act on his complaint.
“They (victims) have complained that the police did not take enough action. Therefore, I have instructed them to submit a report to me,” Director General of Police, Maharashtra, PS Pasricha said.
But this contingent of victims, which is led by the Vice-Chairman of the State Minorities Commission Abrahim Mathai raises a much bigger issue.
In the last one month there has been five such instances. All of them in Thane rural areas adjoining the Gujarat border, which include the tribal areas of Wada, Manor, Vikramgarh and Mokhada.
“People from Gujarat come frequently to this part of Maharashtra and create problem in these tribal areas,” Mathai said.
However, this is a charge the VHP leaders deny, but they are also quick to raise the contentious conversion issue, which clearly is an attempt to defend the culprits.
“It was done by the village sarpanch (head) and the people. VHP has nothing to do with it,” VHP Secretary Arun Handa said.
But even as these tribals walk out of the office of the Director General of Police with an assurance that they will not be attacked, the fear of being harassed is etched on their faces.
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