Death of panic-creator at Mata Mutt: BJP calls for special probe

The Kerala BJP on Sunday demanded a high-level probe into the mysterious death of Satnam Singh Mann (28) from Gaya, Bihar at the Mental Health Centre in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday night. Mann was arrested on August 2 for creating panic at the Mata Amritanandamayi Mutt at Vallikkavu, Kollam the previous day.

Talking to newsmen in Kozhikode, State BJP president V Muraleedharan said a high level probe would be needed to find out the cause of the death of Mann. He said the entire Mann episode, including his entry into the Mata Amritanandamayi Ashram, was shrouded in mystery. Muraleedharan also demanded a probe into any possible terror link to the incident.

The Karunagappally police in Kollam had charged Mann with attempt to murder on August 2 after a police official, Joy, was suffered injuries in the effort to block him when he tried to barge on to the dais in the Ashram where Mata Amritanandamayi was giving Darshan to her devotees the previous day.

Mann, who was lodged at the District Prison in Kollam after he was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days, was later shifted to the Mental Health Centre at Peroorkada, Thiruvananthapuram after he reportedly showed signs of mental disturbance. He died at the asylum on Saturday night. The police registered a case for unnatural death.

The inquest, held in the presence of the First Class Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram and the Additional District Magistrate, found that there were over 30 marks of torture on the body of Mann. It was also suggested that several of the marks were not of torture by hand but by iron or wooden rods.

Doctors at the Mental Health Centre said that Mann was brought there with injuries suffered obviously due to torture. He was brought with his limbs tied together, they said. However, doctors at the District Hospital in Kollam to where he was first taken from the prison said there were no signs of torture on his body.

Bimal Kishore Singh, Mann’s brother who had arrived in Kerala from Gaya, told newsmen that his brother had been tortured badly. “When I saw him first in the police station, there were no marks of torture on his body. Now his body is covered with marks. This means that he had been beaten up badly,” he said.

“I want to ask the Kerala Home Minister as to what he has to say about this,” said Bimal Kishore, adding that the family would approach the High court to seek justice. However, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said he could not say at this stage whether Mann’s death was due to unnatural causes.

The autopsy on Mann’s body would be performed only on Monday as his father was presently on a train from Bihar to Thiruvananthapuram. Immediately after the incident at the Ashram, the police had said that Mann, hailing from Shergatti Hatiya near Gaya, was a student of the Ram Manohar Lohia Law College, Lucknow.

Responses