ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Probe into Allahabad attack stillborn

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The Uttar Pradesh police are allegedly trying to kill the investigation into the Allahabad attack on Christian missionaries.

The serious allegation seems to stem from facts. Consider Allahabad Senior Superintendent of Police P K Tiwari's reaction to the incident, for instance.

His responses are loaded with insinuations about the veracity of the complaint. "Why did it take 24 hours for the five missionaries to report the assault?" he asks.

The answer to that is already with the police. The missionaries, belonging to the Kerala-based organisation Hope in Jesus, have clearly stated on record that injuries and shock had delayed their approaching the police.

But Tiwari isn't believing.

The missionaries, who were distributing pamphlets carrying the 'message of Jesus' during the Magh Mela (the popular Hindu bathing festival on the banks of the Ganga), were allegedly dragged inside the Bajrang Dal enclosure. They were allegedly beaten up with sticks, and kicked around strongly.

Eyewitnesses say the assailants shouted 'Mulayam Singh Yadav zindabad' -- but that allegedly seems more a feeble attempt to dodge blame than anything else. In any case, would anyone else try strong-arm tactics inside a Bajrang Dal camp but its own workers?

The police say the missionaries failed to point out anyone during an identification parade, which, incidentally, was conducted inside the Bajrang Dal camp.

"In the first place they file the first information report after a good 24 hours, then they can't even identify the assailants," huffs SSP Tiwari, "So how can they arrive at the conclusion that they were assaulted by the Bajrang Dal?

"How could it be possible for the incident to go unnoticed by the police on a day when at least 700,000 to 800,000 people had converged?" he asks, adding that there was heavy police presence all around and if the missionaries were dragged around, it would surely have attracted attention.

The police also claim the missionaries -- Vijay Kumar, Anil Kumar, Laloo and Asokan (the fifth, Rajendran, escaped) -- gave varying versions during the investigation.

One of the victims, still bandaged, responds, "If the same questions are repeated by different sets of policemen over a period of time, there is bound to be a little difference in the use of words. Why should this be construed as different versions?"

The victims say they were kept in confinement for nearly two-and-a-half hours before being left outside the enclosure. "Somehow we managed to crawl and reach a rickshaw that took us to our parsonage at Naini (on the outskirts of Allahabad)," they say.

After first aid at the mission, they were taken to the district hospital. They were discharged the next morning, following which they approached the police.

But the police don't believe it.

"Why did they not in the first place walk across to the nearest police station that was barely 50 metres away from the enclosure?" Tiwari asks again, "If they were scared of going to the nearest police station, there were 10 other outposts in the area itself. They could have gone to any of those."

Sure, they could have, the missionaries agree -- if they weren't frightened out of their wits.

Another point that the police seem eager to highlight is that Vijay Kumar is a recent convert. He is stated to have told the police that he adopted Christianity after he got cured of a serious stomach ailment by praying to Jesus on the advice of a priest.

The police, thus, are busy investigating the 'other angle'. Namely, how many Hindus have been converted by the Hope in Jesus, which has been working in Allahabad for several years.

A look in that direction paints a white picture of the missionaries. It would seem they have been doing "selfless service", particularly in dalit localities. They do distribute pamphlets published by the Bible Society of India, but they don't seem to have indulged in forcible conversions.

Meanwhile, the incident has sparked off much tension in Allahabad, where Christian missionaries have deep roots and have been running educational institutions and hospitals for decades. "We have made special security arrangements at all such places," reveals District Magistrate Alok Tandon.

While the United Christian Federation of Uttar Pradesh has urged Governor Suraj Bhan to ban all Hindu fundamentalist bodies, the Bajrang Dal's local unit has taken serious affront to the accusations.

Terming it as an ''orchestrated campaign and conspiracy to defame the Sangh Parivar'', the VHP's regional organising secretary Keshav Prasad has demanded action against the police officer who went to the enclosure to investigate.

"The police should not have entered the Bajrang Dal premises without ascertaining facts," he complains, seemingly oblivious to the logic that it was to ascertain the facts that the police came over.

Tell us what you think of this report