Such a sight as was never seen before happened on
the fateful day of 05.11.2001. In the criminal case filed by Hemlata in S.T.R.
No.864/2001, the accused trustees and other accused inmates were compelled to
appear before the Judicial Magistrate I at Pondicherry. Here is what happened
on that day.
Five accused trustees – Harikant Patel, Veda
Prakash Johar, Dilip Datta, Manoj Das Gupta and Albert Patel @ Avinash – were
represented by a hoard of lawyers. The three accused inmates – Krishna
Belliappa, Manjunath and Satyanarayanamurthy – were represented by another set
of lawyers.
On 05.11.2001 Harikant Patel and Veda Prakash
Johar, for the sake of gaining court’s sympathy, were brought by five inmates
each in wheelchair. One of the chair-bearers was Lalit Varma of Aurodhan Art Gallery, who equals four
men in size, accompanied Veda Prakash Johar, his uncle. The trustees were
accompanied by chosen henchmen viz. Matriprasad, Prushottam Iyyengar, Prafulla
Patel, Saumya Bableshwar, Nirmal Chandra Swain, to name a few. So, there were about 23-25 inmates/henchmen of the
trustees present on this auspicious day of hearing. Now add to this another
10-15 lawyers, clerks and well-wishers, all serving the trustees and their
henchmen. So about 40-45 people were present on the accused trustees’ side.
On my side my lawyer, Mr. Cyril Vincent, Jayashree
and myself were present.
The criminal case was generally called at the end
to decrease humiliation caused to the trustees. This day was no exception.
Before the case was called the court had been emptied to accommodate this huge
group. So imagine the scene when we all appeared! Trustees and their coterie of
about 40-45 people on one side, only three people - Mr. Cyril Vincent,
Jayashree and myself – on the other side. Since the court hall was small it was
a fascinating sight.
When the proceedings began C.S. Narasimhan opened
his statement by saying this girl (indicating me) is harassing and intimidating
us (pointing to the trustees). Mr. Vincent simply shrugged his shoulder and the
judge burst out laughing. Mr. Narasimhan went red in the face and abstained
from making such blunt allegations. But the hilarity of the situation totally
escaped the trustees!
