Illegal Impounding of Passport🔗

Illegal impoundment of His Divine Holiness’s passport, denying Him the right to free movement in and out of the country, trying to confine Him to the bounds of India to facilitate the sinister plan of assassinating Him through ‘created’ mob-hatred and mob lynching.

9 Apr 2010, Bengaluru

In a brazen mockery of the law, the passport of His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda was illegally impounded on 29 April 2010 with no intimation or justification whatsoever. This was done in the wake of the religious persecution launched by Hindu extremist militants and atheists against His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda on 3 Mar 2010. A fabricated video was created against Paramahamsa Nithyananda and broadcasted virally through media with vested

interest. Two days after the fabricated video was released, a false complaint was filed against Him with false rape charges. In a blatant attack against Sanatana Hindu Dharma and the World's fastest growing Hindu leader Paramahamsa Nithyananda, the persecution was launched.

The Passport Officer issued a show cause notice vide letter Ref: 26/CRM/31/10 dated 15.04.2010 through speed post. The show cause notice stated that since two criminal cases vide CR. No.141/10 and CR. No. 142/10 are registered against Paramahamsa Nithyananda at Ramanagar Police station, His passport has cause for impounding. Therefore, in the letter, He (His Divine Holiness) was called upon to explain as to why, any action should not be initiated against Him under section 10(3) (e) of the Passport Act, 1967. He was further directed to surrender the passport along with a reply within seven days, failing which action will be initiated to impound the passport! Below is the show cause notice:

His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda was on a spiritual tour in North India at that time and unable to receive the letter personally or attend to the matter.

With no further intimation or allotment of time, the Passport Officer vide his letter dated 26/CRM/31/10 dated 29.04.2010, which was sent by speed post and the same was received in the Ashram on May 3rd 2010, decided to impound the Passport of Paramahamsa Nithyananda stating therein that two criminal cases vide. CR. No. 141/2010 and CR.No.142/2010 were registered against Him, and that it had been decided to impound the passport, and the same was Impounded!

By Speed Post

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS PASSPORT OFFICE Telephone:25706100,101,102 80 feet road, 8th Block Koramangala , Bangalore – 95

26/CRM/31/10 29/04/10

You may recall that you were issued with a passport no.Z-1864348 dated 01/10/2008 by this office vide file no. H-01707108.

As informed two criminal cases vide no. Cr. 141/10 and Cr no.142/10 are registered against you in Ramanagar police station u/s 295 (A), 420, 376, 377, 506 (1)120 (B) IPC. Show cause notice was issued to you which has been received on your behalf by the Dhyanapeeta Charitable Trust. However a reply is yet to be received from you. In view of the above it has been decided to IMPOUND your passport and the same is Impounded.

If you wish to appeal against our decision, you may appeal to the Joint Secretary (CPV) & (CPO), Ministry of External Affairs, Patiala House, New Delhi after depositing a sum of Rs 25/- in RBI, through challan under head ‘065-Administrative Service-other receipts’ within 30 days or the said amount may also be paid at the cash counter of this office and the receipt of the same may be enclosed in your appeal. You may send a copy of your appeal to this office to enable us to send your file to the Ministry.

Yours faithfully

For Passport Officer Bangalore

Copy to the Section Officer, (PV-1) Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Patiala House Annexe, Tilak Marg, New Delhi for information.

An atrocious order untenable in law

• The Passport Authority also failed to provide the “reasons” for impounding the passport and this was not only in breach of the statutory provisions of the law but also amounted to denial of opportunity of hearing to the person. • Freedom to go abroad has much social value and represents a basic human right of great significance. It is in fact incorporated as an alienable human right in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. • Before passing of the unusually ‘prompt’ and final order, the reasons for impounding of the passport were neither disclosed nor a reasonable hearing given. Thus the ‘drastic power’ impounding the passport, was clearly in violation of the rule of natural justice, not conforming with the procedure prescribed by the Passports Act, 1967.

The Passport Office revoked the suspension in August 2010.

Appeal U/s 11 of the Passports Act, 1967

Sri Nithyananda Swami (hereinafter referred to as appellant) was issued with a passport No.Z1864348 dated 01.10.2008 by Regional Passport Office, Bangalore (hereinafter referred to as PO).

2. PO was informed by Police authorities that two criminal cases vide No.Cr.141/10 and Cr No.142/10 are registered against appellant in Ramanagar Police station u/s 295(A), 420, 376, 377, 506(1) 120(B) IPC. Show cause notice was issued to appellant which had been received on his behalf by the Dhyanapceta Charitable Trust; however, no response was received from the appellant. In view of the above, PO impounded the passport No.Z1864348. Appellant was given an option to appeal to the undersigned.

3. Appellant preferred an appeal against the impounding order, to the undersigned and the appeal was heard on 3.8.2010. During the appeal hearing, appellant furnished copy of judgment issued by the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka on 11.6.2010 and 9.7.2010 on petition No.CRL.P.2328/2010, C/W 2344/2010 & 2329/2010 filed by appellant. The Hon'ble High Court has noted in both judgments that investigation against the appellant is going on and no firm evidence has been presented yet. The Hon.ble High Court has enlarged the appellant on bail. Surrender of passport is not one of the conditions of the bail.

4. Having considered the relevant facts of the case, I come to the conclusion that there is no justification for impounding of passport in the appellant's case; and accordingly decide that:

(i) The Impounding order issued by the PO is set aside; (ii) Passport facilities will be restored to the appellant, (iii) PO will be at liberty to issue fresh show cause notice and proceed further in case the appellant is charge sheeted in the Court, after investigation is completed, attracting section 10(3)(e) of the Passports Act, 1967. (iv) The appeal is allowed.

HOWEVER, THE ORDER WHICH TOOK JUST 2 WEEKS TO TAKE EFFECT OF IMPOUNDING TOOK A WHOLE 2 YEARS TO BECOME EFFECTIVE WHEN FINALLY HIS DIVINE HOLINESS PARAMAHAMSA NITHYANANDA'S PASSPORT WAS RELEASED.

To,

Dated: Aug 6, 2012

Subject: SUBJECT :- SUSPENSION RELEASE LETTER

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Suspension Order for File Number BNGH01707108 has been released due to the reason as given below :

Clearance received from MEA New Delhi dated 09/08/2010 to restore Passport Facilities.

Yours Sincerely,

For Regional Passport Office, Bangalore

Page 1 of 1

2010-05-15

The atrocities of the CID during police custody - Blatant violation of Human Rights

His Divine Holiness was arrested on 21 April 2010 on the basis of a false complaint filed by a habitual criminal Lenin Karuppan.

Inhuman methods of torture

His Divine Holiness was kept in police custody from 21 April 2010 to 30 April 2010 and subjected to the following illegal methods of torture:

A special investigation room with harsh lights

The interrogation room had been specially created for the purpose of torturing Him. A ‘work order’ was created and given to the agency that was to structure the room. In the work order for the interrogation room, it was described thus:

When the police claimed later that the interrogation videos were stolen by the agency that structured the room, the work order released to the agency had to be released to the court, through which the sadistic ideas of the police got exposed.

The sinister plan of the CID

Even after 8 days of third degree torture and interrogation, the CID was not able to force false confession out of His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda. The work order for the interrogation room itself revealed the sinister plans of the CID, that it was not that the CID had any suspicion about His Divine Holiness and wanted to know the truth, but the CID had very clear plans of torturing Him to a point where He would make false confessions of crime and they could use that to destroy Him.

The 'isolation' strategy of the CID

World Wide police has been known to try various types of torturing techniques on politician-prisoners. It is a form of severe isolation called White torture.

The CID wanted to keep lying in court and continue to torture His Divine Holiness until they get a false confession from Him and thus they destroy Him. It is the last milestone of isolation. The victim is sent into such deep isolation, and programmed to blame himself that the person finally starts doubting Himself; where the person isolates Himself, becomes His own enemy and finally commits suicide.

'Good cop bad cop' technique

The CID played 'the good cop bad cop' technique also. One (good cop) of them would treat Him very nicely and try to convince Him to agree to the pressure of the (bad) cop and agree on the false confession.

The CID-Media nexus

Right after 3rd May 2010, news channels repeatedly telecasted the CID interrogation of His Divine Holiness!

When questioned through the court, the CID claimed theft of interrogation footage!

The upholder of law and order, the law enforcing agencies, the Police who are expected to nab criminals, is claiming that someone stole the CCTV footage of the interrogation from inside the CID premises!! If the crime department of the police itself was claiming of getting robbed, how can their capability can be entrusted to solve criminal cases? Anyhow, it was very obvious that it was a lie and that it was a planned CID-media nexus to air the footage.

Udaya Television, one of SUN Television network channels, telecast a program regularly showing the edited interrogation video which did not have any audio other than the news reader's voice. And the news reader was free to tell what he wanted to further character assassinate His Divine Holiness.

The CID maintained that His Divine Holiness was not cooperating with the investigation, and this was used to justify that the CID was not providing any material to substantiate the allegations against His Divine Holiness and that they wanted an extension of CID custody of additional 8 days of His Divine Holiness (to continue the torture further).

If anyone sees the entire interrogation tapes, one can very clearly see that His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda spoke throughout the video while the police was listening.

The interrogation room construction was entrusted to the PWD Department (Public Works Department). In turn, the PWD called a tender for the same. The said construction was entrusted to Sanjay Marketing, Jayanagar, Bangalore. The said Sanjay Marketing Company had entrusted the work of installing Audio, CCTV system in the said interrogation room to MAASTEK Company. Accordingly the said work was in progress.

The said company installed the audio and CCTV system in the interrogation room. Lock up room and the control room for the same was just adjacent to the interrogation room which was in the finalising stage. The said installation of audio and CCTV system room which was under the supervision of PWD engineer Sri . Rajesh and MAASTEK Company proprietor Vijay with one Venkatesh, Suresh, Sagar and Srikanth were the workers and Technicians working under the same.

On 22.04.2010, after 11.45 p.m one accused by name Nithyananda Swamy of Bidaidi PS Cr Sc 141 2010 was kept in the said lockup and his interrogation was continued in the said interrogation room. On 03 May 2010, at 10.30 and 11 P.M. a program called ‘red alert’ which was displayed by Udaya TV, surprisingly displayed the entire video clipping of the interrogation room of the said accused on 03-05-2010. The said clipping was even put in YouTube on the internet. Both the programs were seen and witnessed by the general public. In this way the MAASTEK technicians illegally committed the theft of the investigative materials and for the wrongful gain, shared the clipping to Udaya TV channel and displayed the same in the YOUTUBE program on internet.

Subsequently, the said video clipping was displayed in other channels also. In this way, SP (Superintendent of Police) claimed to have suspected the involvement of the above mentioned proprietor MAASTEK Sri.Vijay and his workers Venkatesh, Suresh, Sagar and Srikanth. He claimed that they conspired together and had dishonestly and fraudulently without the permission of CID Officials accessed the computer system which is connected to CCTV cameras and downloaded the said video clippings and shared the same with Udaya TV, YouTube and other agencies. He went on to further claim that Suresh and others also committed theft of the digital property of the CID and had caused obstruction to the investigation of the Bidadi Police Station Complaint ref: CR.No.141 10. Hence it is requested to take appropriate legal action and the guilty to be punished.

Suresh:

“I was clearly told to handover the footage in a pen drive”

Sir, I was working as a consultant for M/s.MAASTEK. On 22nd April, Mr.Vijay (of MAASTEK) called me to his office and told me to install the CCTV (Closed circuit television for surveillance) system in the CID office. I along with Mr.Venkatesh [Manager] and 2 technicians by name Srikanth and Sagar went to the CID office to install the CCTV system. We completed installation of the CCTV system on the 24th of April 2010, by evening. In the course of time, as there was a problem in the video and audio clarity, I called Vijay, and he told me to copy the footage and send it through Venkatesh in a pen drive. I did according to his instructions.

“I am told to confess guilty”

On the 4th morning, Vijay called me to his office and told me that Nithyananda’s interrogation clips has been leaked out to media and to please go and clarify. I along with Venkatesh went to the CID office. There we met Mr. Charan Reddy and other inspectors. Mr. Charan Reddy told us, ‘Those who have taken the clippings, please clarify. I will take you to the DG (Director General); he will release you after taking an apology letter the same day afternoon.’

Mr. Vijay came to the CID office and after discussing with his staff, he called me and said that if any case is registered in Maastek’s name, the amount which has to be given of about 8 to 10 lakhs, the CCTV system and the reporting equipment will be seized until the case gets resolved. He told me, 'Go and claim to be guilty, the rest I will manage.'

On 5th morning, along with Venkatesh, Srikanth and Sagar, I went to the CID office. They made us sit till 5 pm. I got frightened and asked my lawyer to come to the CID office. After the lawyer came and spoke to Mr. Bheemaiah, the admin-in-charge, he (admin) told us that if there is a need of me, they will inform me. I left the CID office.

In the morning, they once again called me and asked me to wait outside till 3 pm. The SP, Mr. Chandrasekhar, Mr.Marishetty, Mr.Vinayak and others called me to SP Mr. Chandrasekhar's cabin and started interrogating me. And before this, Vijay, SP Mr.Chandrasekhar and Mr. Marishetty spoke to me and said, 'If you confess to the mistake, we will just put a small case and close the matter because you are in no way related to the Maastek company. In the meantime, Vijay ordered his brother by name Prabodh to bring 2 lakhs cash which i do not know for what purpose. They took my mobile and there was no means of communication to communicate with either my family or lawyer.

“I am tortured in a lodge to agree to confess the lie”

Around 9 pm, SP Mr. Chandrasekhar called 2 constables and one inspector spoke to them. They took me to a lodge named RAJA GALAXY at around 11:30 pm. They told me to make an entry into the register in my own writing. They didn't provide me even food; they took me inside, removed my clothes, tied my mouth and legs and tortured me and told me to agree, threatening that if I don't, they know what to do. They tortured me the whole night. They instructed me to tell that I had given the pen drive to Sinchana Media. I was unable to bear the torture and at around 1 am, I agreed to say according to their instructions. The next morning on the 7th May of 2010, at 8:30 am they took me directly to the CID office You can actually ask Mr.Shafi and take their calls for that particular time and you would know the truth. They even threatened me, 'If you tell this to anybody, that you were in the lodge, you will face dire consequences.'

On 7th May 2010 morning, I saw Mr.Vijay and SP Mr.Chandrasekhar sitting together and discussing the issue, I was frightened and went and asked what the issue is. They said, 'Nothing serious, you just go and meet Vinayak, he will look after everything.' I went and met Mr.Vinayak, the investigating officer who is in charge of this case. He made me sit till afternoon, and they registered an FIR in my name and took me to Sinchana Media office and told me, 'We will show you the system there. You just go and open where the video has been copied (which I do not know actually).'

“They arrest me”

From there, at around 6:30 pm, alongwith Mr.Vinayak, Mr.Marishetty and one constable, they took me to the Magistrate's house. They told me, 'If you tell them that they took you to the lodge and hit you, we will register another case and you will be in serious trouble.’ As per their instructions, when the Magistrate asked me, I replied, ‘They treated me very well.’

They took me to Judicial custody and arrested me.

“I am out on bail but they are continuing to torture me”

I was in Judicial custody for one week and I am out of prison now on bail. Even after the case has been registered and I am on bail, they are harassing me and torturing me, calling me all the time and saying, ‘If you do not agree, another case will be registered in your name.’ They are harassing me and trying to take signature on statements as per their wish forcibly. DIG Mrs.Malini Krishnamoorthy and Mr. Kishore Chandra are abusing me and scaring me during interrogation.

They are sending constables to my house and simply torturing my parents, when I am not there. I am mentally depressed. If the same thing continues, I am thinking of commiting suicide due to the agony which my parents are facing due because of the CID harassments. In such cases, only the CID police has to be blamed and take responsibility for any extreme situation that might happen.

My wellwishers and friends advised me to go and meet SHRC Justice S. R. Nayak. I would like to come out of this mental and physical torture which I have been facing for the past one month. I hope that the culprits would be punished and justice would be give to me on the above mentioned subject.

“I seek justice”

I have complete faith in the law and that you would provide justice to me.

I am herewith enclosing the Lodge Bill and FIR copy.

Please help me out in this regard

Yours sincerely

Suresh MJ

In another statement, the CID said that they confiscated the tapes from the accused in their company, that is Suresh. But the statements in the court said, it was not true to suggest that on the above date when I had been to the CID office that the accused were present. It is not true to suggest that later the CID police have seized the hard disc shown to me now from the possession of accused through ex.P.1 mahazar in my presence and later I signed Ex.P.I. It is not true to suggest that I know the accused very well. It is not true to suggest that to help the accused I am giving false evidence.

Cross examination for accused No.3 by Sri.SCS advocate.

I have no any technical knowledge about the computers. CID police did not seize any hard disc in my presence.

Below are some of the newspaper clippings of the leaked footage:

clippings from the CID by one Mohan, who works for a company, Sinchana Me-dia, the office of which at Jayanagar. The officers investigating the cyber crime were able to locate the IP address from where the clippings were uploaded on YouTube, a CID press note said. Nithyananda, while in the custody of CID, was interro-gated by officers in the interrogation room which was newly set up by the PWD. When clip-pings of the inter-rogation appeared on YouTube, an en-quiry was conduct-ed within CID. It was found that PWD had out-sourced the record-ing work of interro-gation to a private company and a techni-