Cop in eye of storm over alleged Gayatri mantra advice to warring couple
MEERUT: A man has claimed through his lawyer that a police station house officer (SHO) advised him and his wife, who were embroiled in a dispute, to chant the Gayatri mantra early every morning to solve their problems instead of lodging an FIR. It was on the insistence of the station house officer of Nauchandi police station in Meerut that the couple wrote a compromise note with the assurance that they would indeed chant the Gayatri mantra, the 58-year-old man Hemant Goel claimed through his lawyer Ram Kumar Sharma. For his part, SHO Premchand Sharma denied the allegation against him and said, “I have nothing to do what they wrote in their compromise note.” He also denied giving any written advice to chant the Gayatri mantra.
The police officer said, “I sent him (Goel) for medical examination and also registered his FIR against his wife Savita (Kaushik) and her son Hemant (Sharma) under Sections 504, 506 and 427 of the IPC.” The SHO said that Savita had also given a complaint of domestic violence and mental torture against Goel.
On the other hand, Goel’s lawyer Ram Kumar Sharma said they had no information about the case registered against Savita and her son (from another marriage) on the complaint of Goel.
He claimed that instead of registering the FIR against Goel’s wife and her son, SHO gave Goel written advice in Hindi, which reads, “Samasya ka sampurn samadhan, 03 din, Shantikunj
Hardwar me pravas kare, Maa Gayatri mantra ki deeksha le aur 108 manka ki maala ka Brahmuhurt mein jaap kare” (Solution to the problem, three days: Visit Shantikunj in Haridwar, take spiritual initiation in the Gayatri mantra and repeat it 108 times while counting beads at the auspicious time of Brahmuhurt).”
Ram Kumar Sharma said he, along with Goel, met inspector general (IG), Meerut range, Praveen Kumar on Thursday and briefed him about the SHO’s conduct. “The IG spoke to the SSP and directed him to look into the issue,” the lawyer said. The lawyer claimed the same SHO was recently in the news for sprinkling Ganga jal (Ganga water) on visitors at his police station. Despite attempts to reach him, the IG (Meerut range) was not available for comment.