No conspiracy in deaths of Jain sadhus, sadhvis, says CID

Ujwala Nayudu, IE

The recent deaths of Jain sadhus, sadhvis in road accidents in Gujarat and Rajasthan were “pure accidents and nothing more”, concludes the CID (crime).

The state government had handed over the investigation to CID (crime) in these road accidents following representations by an agitated Jain community three months ago. The report will be submitted to the state government shortly.

The state government had handed over the investigation to a four-member committee headed by V V Rabari, ADGP CID Crime, after representations by the Jain community leaders. Rabari said the investigations of the three accidents at Unjha (Mehsana), Barmer (Rajasthan) and Limbdi (Surendranagar) respectively show no hands of Anoop Mandal or any other group as was being alleged.

He added, “In all the three cases, the truck and jeep drivers were arrested immediately by the respective zone police. Those incidents were pure accidents and there is no substance in the allegation of any conspiracy behind their alleged ‘attacks’ or ‘murders’.”

He added that most of their investigation is over and only minor cross-verification is going on.

The CID stated that driver Vishnoi arrested in connection with Unjha accident was interrogated thoroughly but he had no connections with any group. However, they told The Sunday Express that he would be put under the narco analysis test this May.

The spate of accidents began from November 9 last year at Unjha-Mehsana Highway where four sadhvis died and five others were reportedly injured by a speeding truck.

The Mehsana police had arrested truck driver Manojkumar Vishnoi, a resident of Madiya Village (Bikaner) near Ankleshwar.

On November 12, in another accident, two sadhus were knocked down and one was seriously injured when they were travelling to Jaisalmer from Barmer. The truck driver was arrested on November 13 by Baitu Police and later bailed out.

On February 4, five sadhvis were going to Limbdi on Rajkot-Limbdi Highway when a speeding truck knocked down two of them and injured two others. The truck driver, Anis Pathan, was arrested on the same day by the local police.

Inspector J M Chaudhary, CID Crime (Mehsana), said, “The report does not show any association of the accidents with the Anoop Mandal. Moreover, from whatever he has told the police till now, there is no involvement of Anoop Mandal in the accidents. The drivers’ background, connections, family details were checked and they don’t’ have any relation with any religious group. We are, therefore, making one last attempt through a narco test in May to see if the allegations regarding Jain sadhus, sahdvis are true at all.”