The People For Animals, Uttarakhand member secretary, has submitted an application to the Nainital Senior Superintendent of Police, requesting that FIRs be lodged against the Nainital sub-divisional magistrate and people who indulged in animal sacrifice in violation of High Court orders during the Nanda Devi temple fair in Nainital on Friday.
The SDM has been accused of conveying information to those wanting to sacrifice animals in a manner that instigated the crowd and compromised the safety of animal rights activists. In the letter to the Nainital SSP, PFA Uttarakhand member secretary Gauri Maulekhi informed that she and some members of PFA had attended the Nanda Devi temple fair to observe if the order of the High Court regarding animal sacrifice was being upheld and also to visit the temple on the auspicious day of Nandashtami on September 13.
She states, “While we were on watch at the temple on the night of September 12, we saw a temporary structure erected 20 metres from the bank of the Naini lake. Since the SHO Mallital was the person in-charge there, we informed him that it seemed that the temple committee was planning to conduct some illegal animal sacrifice on the temple premises, inside this structure. The structure had a crude alter made inside and appeared freshly made. On September 13 morning, people started gathering with goats around the temple. Initially, when the visitors with goats were few, the police asked them to go away. When the crowd gathered in larger numbers at the temporary structure, few policemen just stood guard at the gate and prevented the goats from entering for some time. During this while, some prominent miscreants in the crowd hurled filthy and malicious abuses at me. They tried to manhandle and push me around. The SDM Nainital CS Martolia reached the spot and helped the police to keep people from bringing the animals for slaughter inside the premises.”
“After a while he had a word with some persons who were leading the crowd and was heard telling them that Maulekhi was making a video and that the people could do what they want after she goes away otherwise she will go to court against the officials if they allow the people to violate the HC order. This was conveyed to the miscreants by the SDM with a clear intention to compromise my safety and instigate the crowd against me. After saying this, he left the scene,” states Maulekhi.
She adds that the SDM and the SHO kept asking her to go back to the police control room instead of standing near the temporary structure with a video camera. Soon some people broke into the temporary structure and also attacked her and tried to grab her video camera though she managed to escape from the scene while also capturing a few woman and men who were threatening to kill her and abusing her on video. Thereafter these people led the others inside the temporary structure and slaughtered the goats to ‘appease’ the goddess.
She said, “I was pushed away from the scene by the miscreants with encouragement from the SDM. I rushed to find the SDM and found him sitting in a room with some of the temple committee members about 200 metres from the site where the scuffle had broken out. I asked him to go and control the crowd and ensure that the order of the High Court was not flouted. He refused to go and continued to ignore my complaint.”
She has requested the Nainital SSP to lodge FIRs against Martolia for knowingly and maliciously instigating some miscreants which led to murderous attacks on her and in encouraging them to openly flout the High Court order. FIRs should also be lodged against the people whose identities can be verified with the help of the videos taken on the day — for performing animal slaughter in the Nanda Devi temple premises which is not a registered slaughter house and is in the middle of the Nainital city area, hardly a couple of kilometre from the High Court. Stating that she fears for her life and safety, Maulekhi e-mailed her complaint to the SSP at the only email id mentioned on the official website of the Uttarakhand police.