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WORLD  Comment on this story Krishna Devotees On Trial In Puri BY VRINDABAN DAS INDIA, Jan 21 (VNN) — Dear Respected Vaisnava, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glory to our spiritual masters. After spending more than 500 days in the Puri Jail the trial has finally begun! Friday, January 18 the trial of 6 accused persons, including Mandali Bhadra das and Mayapur Chandra das, both Italians, and Sudarsan das Mohapatra of Puri, famed photographer of Lord Jagannatha in the alleged gang-rape of Maria Schmidova and her daughter Tulasi devi began in the court room of the Honorable Guru Prasad Das, Chief Judicial Magistrate in Sri
The trial was started in spite of neither Maria, the complainant, or Tulasi devi, the alleged victim appearing. Both have stayed in their home country Austria and have declined to come to India. At the time of their arrest, the accused persons vehemently protested the police allowing Maria to leave India because they had serious doubts she would come back. But, the police continually advised the courts that Maria was definitely coming. Six witnesses have been called in the first two days of the trial. Each of them has been declared "hostile" by the prosecution, as none of them were able to sustain what the police allege they said during the investigation. The first witness, admitted he knew both Asoke Sahu and Maria, but said Maria had never claimed anyone had raped her or her daughter. He said that one time Maria complained that she believed Asoke Sahu was trying to kill her daughter, but shortly thereafter Asoke came and said he wanted to commit suicide because Maria was always fighting with him. He said that in his opinion this whole case is simply due to a lover's quarrel. The next witness, Saraswati devi, a woman originally from Switzerland, but now married to a Bengali man and living in Puri was dismissed by the judge as a witness because she could not understand or speak proper English. The third witness was a local man who owns the Basu Hotel. The police claim that Maria was living at this hotel. But the hotel owner said Maria has never stayed in his hotel and he did not know her or any of person implicated in the case. And so it goes on. From the day the case began the accused persons tried to convince the police to have Maria examined by a mental health specialist. They refused. From the start the accused devotees begged the police to keep Maria in Puri for the trial. They refused. Now having suffered for nearly 1 1/2 years in unimaginable conditions in the Puri jail, the case is going to be discharged. The judge actually offered to have the case discharged yesterday (Jan. 19) but the prosecutor said he would like to bring just a few more "witnesses". The expectation is the case will be over before February 10. Your servant, Vrindaban das Related VNN Stories Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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