“Guru” slips away leaving UP police & ASI at loggerheads.

VISHAL SHARMA
INDIA (Agra), 29 Dec. The dust raised by the UP Tourism minister Kawkab Hamid against the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a Central government department on the issue of Yoga classes held by a US based Yoga Guru at the Taj Mahal had not even settled when the “Guru” himself has raised another uproar by slipping away quietly after issuing a disputed statement accusing the police of misbehavior.
In a statement issued to the media few minutes before leaving Agra on Tuesday, the international Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhary has alleged that the Agra police had harassed him and dragged him from his hotel to the police station, denying him his fundamental rights as a US citizen. He has also charged the Station House Officer (SHO), Taj Ganj police station for making him sign on blank papers while he was in police custody.
On the other hand, the Archaeological Survey of India has also accused the Agra police of being un-cooperative in this case. The Superintending Archaeologist of ASI, D. Dayalan said on Wednesday that the way the police has invoked just section 188 of IPC in this case, indicates that it was not serious in taking strict action against the Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhary as it could have easily invoked the Public Premises Act against him for creating nuisance at a public place and detained him but instead, it has weakened the case by registering in under “weak” laws, allowing the Guru to slip away easily. He said that he has now referred this issue with the higher authorities in the ASI to take up the matter with the UP government and ensure better cooperation from the police.
Targeted from both sides, the Senior Superintendent of Police Agra, Rajiv Krishna said that the police had just taken Bikram Choudhary to the station on the complaint of the ASI but since the police did not have any jurisdiction in the case according to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, sub-sections (7) & (8) (b) and the ASI was perfectly capable of stopping such activities inside the Taj Mahal with the powers vested in it by the Act. He said that the police could only intervene if it is empowered to do so by the concerned Act, still, it invoked the section 188 of IPC against the Guru for disobeying the direct orders of the Supreme Court of India against commercial activities in the Taj Mahal.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)

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