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Virat Hindustan Sangam to take care of education of deceased driver’s daughters
By Vinod Raghavan*
The barbaric killings of two orange-clad sadhus and their driver in Maharashtra’s tribal area in Palghar district, has taken a new twist with TV anchors battling brownie points on their channels, political parties in power, hurling charges and counter charges against each other, but on the ground, Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s Virat Hindustan Sangam (VHS) members are helping the deceased driver’s family with their need and also providing legal assistance during this lockdown period.
The deceased driver Nilesh Telwade, who volunteered to bring the body of a sadhu from Surat for the last rites to Kandivali, was accompanying both the sadhus – Kalpavriksha Giri Maharaj and Sushil Giri Maharaj on the fateful night of April 16, after the Samta Nagar, Kandivali (East) police refused inter-state travel permits.
They took the interior roads, unfortunately, on reaching Dadra Nagar Haveli, a Union Territory controlled by the Central government, were not allowed to travel without pass due to lockdown. Thus the deceased took the sadhus from the tribal village Gadchinchale, says senior journalist Nikhil Waghle.
The veteran journalist who worked for over three decades in print and TV channels, further charged that, “had the authorities of Dadra Nagar Haveli not driven away the sadhus in the late hours and had kept them at their check post till the next morning, this gruesome incident could have avoided.”
While Republic TV founder and well known journalist Arnab Goswami, is in the soup for his alleged remarks on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s role. Cases have been filed in various parts of the country against Goswami on which he approached the Supreme Court. However, the top court has stayed the matter for three weeks .
On hearing the news of the tragic incident, VHS members from Mumbai – Prashant Kalgulkar, alongwith his wife and others rushed to the deceased driver’s house in Kandivali and consoled the family members. Telwade’s wife and mother were shattered on hearing the tragic news. His two school going daughters were speechless.
VHS member Prashant handed Rs 51,000 to the family and vowed to bear the education expenses of Telwade’s dauthers. Ishkaran Singh Bhandari of VHS and a close legal aide of Dr. Swamy, also said he will take the up legal issue to expedite the matter and demanded for a CBI probe.
Dr. Swamy, who is known to take the matter to its logical end, had tweeted that he had confidence on Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s ability and commitment to book the real culprits, as he is the son of Balasaheb, who was known for his plain and straight talk.
VHS Maharashtra unit Chief Dr. Ajay Sankhe alongwith Rajiv Hasora, Natraj Shetty and Palghar VHS Chief Arvind Rai visited Telwade’s family and assured all assistance to them.
Coincidently, Dr. Swamy has adopted two villages Kodad and Dhuktan in Palghar district (which is stone throwaway from Gadchinchale village) under the Prime Minister’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana and lot of activities have been undertaken, said Aruna Acharya, VHS member and Managing Trustee of Dr. A R Acharya Memorial Trust, Mumbai, who has been regularly visiting the village, supervising, and helping the womenfolk to stand on their own feet by giving training in Tailoring and computer classes. The medical facilities at the Sub-Primary Health Centre have been upgraded also an Anganwadi has been set up, she added.
*Vinod Raghavan is a senior journalist[the_ad_placement id=”sidebar-feed”]
