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WORLD  Letter to Bombay Trustees BY SANJAY RAUT INDIA, May 6 (VNN) — Sanjay Raut 295, Harekrishna Land, Juhu, Mumbai - 400049. Phone No. 6231932. E-mail - rsanjay@vsnl.com Harassment caused and Dire Threats by the Management of 'Hare Krishna Temple' (Iskcon) Respected Sir, I, Sanjay Damodar Raut, aged 50 years, residing at the above mentioned address beg to submit the following facts and incidents and the serious threats posed to me and my family members by the management of the Iskcon with an earnest plea for our kind intervention in the matter and necessary action. I am 50 years of age and was born and brought up at the above mentioned address in Hare Krishna Land, Juhu, Mumbai 400049. The said premises stands in the name of my father Shri Damodar Raut, being a very old Tenant for last more than 52 years. I being the son of Shri Damodar Raut. He is very old tenant of the said premises having rented the same from Mr. A. B. Nair who was the original owner of the said premises. I being his son have been staying in the said premises, since my birth. I am staying therein with my wife and son. I had completed my schooling in the Potdar School at Santacruz and completed college education in Bhagubhai Engg. College at Vile-Parle and got a Civil Engg. Degree. I was running a factory wherein I was manufacturing wooden cabinets, for TVs and Xerox machines. The property wherein my house is situated, originally belonged to Shri A.B. Nair and the said land then, was popularly known as Nairwadi till the year 1972. Thereafter, the said original owner sold out the said property to Hare Krishna Temple Trust (Iskcon) of Juhu, Mumbai. When the Iskcon people acquired this 20,000 square yard (1,80,000 sq. ft.) property they got it for RS. 14,00,000. At a dirt cheap rate of about RS 70 per sq. yrd. ( Approx. RS. 8 per sq. ft. ) While the price of land was RS. 50 per sq. ft. in the late 70s-72s. It was because of the tenants that Mr. Nair deliberately undervalued the property. At the material time Guru Shri Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was the Founder Trustee of the said trust. He was a kind hearted,respectable and noble person. He was behaving very properly and kindly with all persons, even a poorest man. A few years after his passing away the so called Sanyasi's who took over the charge and management of the said trust of the temple started behaving strangely and high handedly with almost all tenants. They were really rough and anti- social. A few years ago there were about 34 tenants occupying different tenements in the building of the said property who were the original tenants. They were residing there for more than 50 years. At the time when the said property along with the existing tenants were transferred to the above mentioned Iskcon Trust all the tenants were assured by the new purchase that the occupation and possession of the existing tenants and they will be duly protected by the Trust. But immediately after the demise of the said Shrila Prabhupada the so called Sanyasi's and followers of Shri Krishna, started behaving very rudely and giving ill treatment and harassing them as stated below:- The tenants installed a staue of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre of the ground many years ago, which the Iskcon Trustees tried to get rid of but the tenant protested. There was a road on the north end of the said plot meant for the tenants' access. It was a public road. They blocked the said road. By using their influence with the authorities, they converted it into a private road. Gradually, they amalgamated the said road in the plot of the temple and there is now no road at all. This, they have done inspite of protests from tenants inorder to harass the tenants. There was a gate opening on the said plot from Gopal galli on the south side of the said plot for the use of tenants, they permanently closed the said gate and erected a wall in its place. Thus, they easy access to the premises of the tenants was blocked. They also, started objecting to the tenants using the main gate and in an altercation with the tenants, they assaulted one of the tenants by name, Mr. Dilip Malhotra and killed and there was a murder case pending against the office bearers and employees of the trust. There were various other incidents where the tenants were often abused and assaulted. They used to quarrel with all the tenants on flimsy grounds. They had also, constructed several open cooking places and 'Bhattis' in the open space behind the temple which was causing great smoke nuisance and harassment to the tenants of the adjoining buildings. Having got fed up with such harassment and unbecoming tactics of the management, some of the tenants have left their premises. All these activities are indulged in by the management in order to force and coerce the tenants to vacate and leave the premises in their occupation. Recently, the trust had filed ejectment suits in the Small Cause Court on false ground against all the tenants, including me. Even thereafter, they continued their pressure tactics and almost all the tenants, except me and two others, left their premises after taking meagre compensation and went to reside elsewhere. If the trustees say that they do have ample space. I think there's nothing religious about the Iskcon movement, what the movement has done is taken a branch of mainstream Hinduism and converted it into a Vaishnavite cult - with mega business interests. Immoral and illegal activities are also reported to be going on in the temple. There were lot of lady devotees in the temple in the beginning and rumors were there that illegal and immoral goings on, were there. There were various incidences of such immoral activities which went unheeded because of the influence and money power of the management. The management takes advantage of the contacts they have with ministers and government officials who visit the Hare Krishna temple. Any visitor to the Iskcon temple can see this and many a resident in Juhu has been heard describing the temple complex as a nuisance in an otherwise one-time quit residencial suburb. The Iskcon temple premises at Juhu have become a tourist attraction and busloads of outstation people turn up to see the sights of the temple as well as eat out here -- the temple caters to creature comforts as much as to spiritual comforts. All for a price of course the temple complex houses a hotel cum restaurant where members can stay for two days at time free of charge, member have this facility when they travel abroad too. For several reasons the Iskcon organization has also become popular with a certain section of the Indian business community .It boasts of several big time business houses like the Hindujas and Mahindras as their patrons,and according to their preaching their founder Shri Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhu Pada preached "Simple living and high thinking" today's gurus preach "opulent living and ambitious thinking." I have in my occupation and possession the premises admg. carpet area 600 sq.ft. plus mezzanine floor having carpet area of 300 sq.ft. I am also in use of the surrounding open space adjacent to my premises which admeasures about l500 sq.ft. The rent of my premises is RS. 35/- per month which is the old rent and I am paying the same to the trust regularly. The management is now taking help of anti social elements to coerce me to leave the said premises and render me shelter-less. Some of the incidents which they have adopted are as stated below: a) The trust has erected a godown adjoining my premises and have dumped iron articles and other junk and they shift and remove the said iron articles and old utensils from the godown, even at late nights in order to disturb the sleep and peace of my family members. They also dump old articles or rubbish surrounding my house. They have erected a school next to my house and allow the cars of the parents of the students and the school buses and the buses of tourists 3visiting the temple to be parked near the entrance of my house so as to create nuisance to me and obstruct moving of my vehicle (a four wheeler). They also rent out the hall of the school building for marriages and other programs and parties and allow the visitors to collect and park their cars in front of my house causing me and my family members disturbance and nuisance When the postman or the courier services man come to deliver letters to me they prevent them from coming to my premises to deliver the mail telling them that I am not residing in the temple. Many time they also stopped my guests and visitors from bringing and/or parking their cars near my house. The trust management has also threatened me that "if you did not vacate the said premises in my possession,they would not hesitate to make me follow 'DILIP MALHOTRA' who was killed by the hirelings of the Iskcon as stated above. The trust authorities have not spared even my wife who is all alone at home .They harass her through their hirelings. On 10th April, 2001, the temple people namely 1)Devkinandan Das, 2)Brajhari Prabhu, 3)Saryogya, 4)Pancharatna, 5)Radhakrishna along with 50-60 persons gathered near my house in a threatening posture and removed and took away about 18-20 small flower plants in earthen pots kept around my house and lying there for the last many years and broke the same and threatened my wife that they would make me another "Dilip Malhotra" if I failed to vacate the said tenanted premises forthwith'. I longed a police complaint about the said incident on 10 April 2001 with the local police station at Juhu,Mumbai. I also like to mention here that some time ago I had complained to Iskcon Authorities about the bad condition of the roof of the premises which was eaten away by termites and requested them to repair the roof. But they did not pay any attention for about 5 years and in the year 1989 on my complaint the Municipal Corporation called upon the Trust Authorities to carry out repairs to the roof and they falsely informed the Municipal Corporation that they have already carried out repairs to the roof of my house although they did not carry out any repairs which fact was brought to the notice of Municipal Authorities by me, that the trust authorities falsely informed them about the repairs being carved although infect they did not carry out any repairs. Thereupon I was granted permission to carry out the said repairs to the roof . However when I started the repair work the Trust Authorities managed to get a stop work notice from the Municipal Corporation. During the year 1992, I had obtained permission from the B.M.C for repair work of my premises on the strength of the permission granted by the trust authorities, which I carried out at my own cost. However when the repair work was in progress the Trust Authorities dishonestly and suddenly managed to bring a stop work notice from the B.M.C and to demolish the construction work with an ulterior motive and hence I was compelled to rush to court to obtain Stay Order and obtain an injunction from the City Civil Court, Mumbai, in a Suit no. 4022 of 1992. Although the trust failed a suit against me for eviction in the court of Small Cause, Bombay bearing RAE No. 719 of 1998. and the same is pending, they kept up and continued their harassing tactics to compel me to vacate the said premises without due process of law. Recently I was threatened by 1) Devkinandan Das, 2) Brajhari Prabhu, 3) Saryogya, 4)Pancharatna, 5)Radhakrishna and others of the Hare Krishna Temple Trust that I would be driven away by the Trust following the due process of law and that they would demolish my garden near my house and with such an ulterior motive dismantled the water supply to my premises and/or diverted the water supply to some other place and thus I am deprived of sufficient water supply. On account of heavy load of electricity consumed by the Trust Authorities, electric supply to my premises is also badly affected. Very often there is fluctuation in electric supply and the lights go off often . After I often . After I obtained injunction, for some time the Trust Authorities were quiet but since recently the Trust Authorities have started a campaign of harassment to me and threats were given to me and my family members of dire consequences if I did not vacate the said premises in my occupation. Under the circumstances I am under great fear for my life and apprehension that my life and the lives of my family members are in danger at the hands of the anti social elements/hirelings of the Iskcom management and that at any time they are likely to throw me out of my premises. I and my wife are suffering acute mental agony and torture. I have registered various complaints about the above threats with the local police Authority but those complaints fell on deaf ears due to the influence of the Hare Krishna Mandir management with the police and High officials of the Government and even ministers. I, therefore pray that you will very kindly look into the above matter and prevail upon and persuade the Trust Authorities not to take law into their own hands and refrain from adopting such coercive and high handed tactics adopted by them against me to throw me out of my premises without due process of law. I shall be deeply grateful. Yours faithfully, Sanjay Raut  Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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