appeal for help

[Guest guest]

National Human Rights Commission

 

New Delhi

 

 

 

 

 

Hyman Zuckerman M.D.C.M.

 

c/o B. Srikant

 

P-302 Reliance Township

 

Piplod

 

Surat 395 007

 

November 10, 2000.

 

 

 

National Human Rights Commission

 

New Delhi

 

 

 

 

 

Unlawful detention in Puri, Orissa of William G. Benedict – US

national residing and doing business in Bangkok, Thailand (and others).

 

 

 

Sirs,

 

 

 

Mr. William G. Benedict, aged about fifty, a long-time lover of Indian culture,

was in Puri, Orissa on a visit about three months ago. The media at the time

were giving some coverage to a major case of child abuse being brought in the US

against ISKCON and some of its leaders. One European woman Maria apparently of

mentally unstable nature also visiting Puri at the time, made a complaint to the

local police that Mr. Benedict along with three others had sexually molested her

child. The three were arrested and put into jail in Puri where they have been

ever since. No investigation has been made as to the whereabouts of Mr. Benedict

at the time of the alleged crime. (In fact he was visiting at a temple in Puri;

one of the other accused was in Bhubaneswar.) Mr. Benedict’s name did not appear

in the FIR but was been inserted afterward.

 

He and the others have been denied bail and denied a senior attorney. Reports of

medical examinations conducted on the alleged child victim have indicated no

signs of abuse.

 

 

 

They and five hundred other men are being held in a facility built over one

hundred years ago to house 180. There are only ten toilets in the whole

building… ninety percent of the inmates pass urine on the ground. The stench

ishorrible. There are no fans. In the summer the heat was intolerable. They

lived in their perspiration twenty-four hours a day and Mr. Benedict developed

severe rashes over most of his body as a consequence.

 

 

 

Inside the prison no means of communications are available. The jail staff reads

messages. There is no privacy at all. If a lawyer comes, a jail staff person

sits in and listens to everything and reports it to the police. Mr. Benedict’s

health in the jail rotted away rapidly. At present Mr. Benedict is in hospital

in Puri due to heart and liver problems. He is known to the undersigned for

years but has never been known to suffer from these, so it appears they are the

result of the conditions he is subject to in prison. In the hospital the first

week he was in the general ward, chained to his bed twenty four hours a day

except to go to the toilet. (Since coming to the hospital his health has

improved, but he has no strength, no stamina, and his mind is very disturbed.)

Besides the assault on his mental and physical health and financial losses, his

reputation stands to be ruined.

 

 

 

In spite of doing nothing criminal, Mr. Benedict and the others have been

accused and imprisoned in a false case. They are being exploited and are the

objects of racially and/or culturally based prejudicial treatment by police and

jail officials. The police systematically intimidate every person who comes to

visit him. After one visit no one ever comes again because of this intimidation.

Even one of his own advocates was scared away by the menacing attitude of the

police persons there. Senior advocates in Orissa have stated their opinion that

he has been illegally arrested, imprisoned, and denied bail. One of the

advocates is Mr. Gangadhar Rath, formerly Advocate General of Orissa for

fourteen years.

 

 

 

Mr. Benedict is a responsible parent, businessman and community worker. One of

two partners in a business in Thailand manufacturing aromatic products, he gives

employment to over three hundred persons. Among his six children, one daughter

recently completed her second year with all “A”s at the University of California

at Berkeley where she studies political science and journalism. She was the

valedictorian at the high school where she graduated (in Visalia, California) at

the head of a class of 478 students, giving the commencement address on behalf

of her class. She is also an extremely talented person in many respects: music,

art, math, science, languages, sports and music. She is now working as an intern

with George (Star Wars) Lucas learning how to make motion pictures. Mr.

Benedict is the father of five other children, some of whom live with him in

Thailand. They are also very qualified and talented. He has no history of any

criminal activity such as child abuse. In India he patronises cultural,

scholarly and religious institutions and individuals in India and elsewhere. He

has sponsored the publication of several books on Indian traditional

architecture, cultural history and other related subjects.

 

 

 

Mr. Benedict had previously been trying to convince his wife and children about

their coming to live in India. After seeing the injustice he is being subjected

to they say they now never want to set foot in India again. Similarly I feel

that if news of such inhuman treatment of benevolent visitors to India becomes

known – via the Internet or otherwise – outside the country, maybe tens

thousands of would-be visitors to India will instead go elsewhere.

 

 

 

This case is worthy of serious investigation by the Human Rights Commission, and

probably should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation with

priory consideration being given to the release of Mr. Benedict and the others.

 

 

 

 

 

Yours truly,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyman Zuckerman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. It has since come to my attention that the plaintiff is involved in a

dispute over some land in Puri involving the main-accused, who is her fiancee.

The main-accused had been under threat by his elder brother who wants to retain

all rights to their late father's property as opposed to sharing it equitably

between the seven brothers and sisters and their aged mother. There are

indications that the sister in law of the chief accused has a history of

misusing the laws pertaining to rape to extort money and to force her will upon

others and that she has instigated the plaintiff to make up and file the charges

to have the chief accused eliminated from being a contender for the inheritance.

The police also appear to have failed to investigate these aspects.

 

 

 

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