The police in Kochi, Kerala have registered a case against a Hindu charitable trust following a complaint by a 26-year-old woman on Monday, alleging that she was forcibly detained at the yoga centre near Tripunithura, physically and mentally tortured for marrying a Christian man. While the police have reportedly arrested one person, while the four yoga teachers at the Yoga Vidya Kendra are absconding.      

In an affidavit filed in the Kerala High Court, the complainant identified as Dr Shweta has said that over 60 Hindu women who had married men from other religions were similarly illegally detained, some of them for long periods. Dr Shweta who managed to escape from the centre filed her affidavit in support of a habeas corpus petition filed earlier by her 29-yearold husband from Thrissur, Rinto Isaac.

According to Dr Shweta, a  young woman, Athira from Kasaragod, who had chosen to convert to Islam on her own who recently ‘returned’ to ‘Sanatana dharma’ with much fanfare, was in this place for twenty-two days and that she had continued to insist on her preference for Islam.

Shweta and Isaac who married following Hindu ceremony at a temple subsequently registered their marriage under the Special Marriages Act.

According to a report in the Times of India, Dr Shweta was forced by her parents to go to the centre for “counseling”. She told the Times of India that at the centre her hands were often bound and the “counseling” was limited to pointing out the pitfalls of Christianity and Islam.

“We were forced to sleep on the floor of dormitories and the doors of bathrooms did not have locks. There were [those] who had [been] confined for years… Most of the inmates were ill all around but no treatment was given,” Dr Shweta said in her affidavit.

The yoga centre evidently functioned as a torture camp to ensure the ‘ghar wapsi’ of Hindu women who marry men from other religions.  Some years ago, similar kidnap and illegal detention centre was being run in Gujarat from girls from the Patel caste who married outside her caste or community.

The Udayamperoor panchayat has issued a closure notice to the Yoga Vidya Kendra run by one Manoj, alias ‘Guruji’. 

The story was first broken by the Malayalee news channel Media One.
 

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In perhaps the first case of its kind, all 14 policemen at a police post in Kanpur have been suspended following the death in custody under suspicious circumstances of a 25-year-old Dalit, Kamal Valmiki.
 
The family members of the deceased have alleged the young man’s death was due to severe beating by the police. They have filed an FIR against the station in-charge and the rest of the staff on duty.
 
According to reports, Valimiki, a resident of Shiv Katra village was brought to the Ahirwan police station two days ago in connection with a theft. In an alleged attempt to hush up the death, reportedly the police had initially sent the body for post-mortem under a false name. The post-mortem report is awaited.
 
Meanwhile another person, Raju Mistry, who was also picked up along with Valmiki is missing. A case of kidnapping has been slapped against all the suspended cops while one of them has reportedly been charged with murder.

"Death in police custody is a very serious offence and we will spare no one in this case," said UP’s police chief, Javed Ahmed.
 
Valmiki’s death is sure to further fuel the ongoing agitation in different parts of the country over atrocities against Dalits and increasing instances of cow vigilantism. Local Dalits have already clashed with the police and former UP chief minister and leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party has taken up the issue in a big way.
 
The ruling Akhilesh Yadav government which has been under fire from the Congress and the BJP for the law and order situation in the state will face further heat now. Assembly elections are due to be held next year in UP where Dalits form 26% of the state's electorate.  
 

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