DNA evidence used way back in 1997 to establish paternity
This is an old news, but here is a clear indication of double standards of our society. We are ready to use the DNA based paternity test to convict a fake Swamy in a rape case. But why is there such reticence; and such convoluted and contorted logic used to deny the benefit of the same scietific test when a woman commits adultery and the evidence is present there for the world to see in the form of a child. Often we hear the argument – “in the best interest of the innocent child”. How does preventing a child from uniting with its biological father serve the best interests of the child? Aha! If it is for money, then why only this particular child should benefit from the legalized extortion? There are far more numbers of deserving children that are starving throughout our country. Those children deserve better than the product of sin, who is clearly the responsibility of its biological mother and its biological father – and no one else.
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Double life sentence for Premananda
DECCAN HERALD Thursday, August 21, 1997 DH News Service CHENNAI, Aug 20
In a sensational judgment, controversial godman Premananda was today convicted of rape and murder and awarded double life imprisonment and a cumulative fine of Rs.66.4 lakh. Pudukottai District and Sessions Judge R Banumathi also ruled that the 46-year-old godman should undergo the life sentences consecutively. He should undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of 32 years and nine months if he failed to pay the fine, the judge added.
Premananda, a Kandyan Tamil from Sri Lanka who set up an ‘ashram` near Tiruchi in the mid-`80s, was found guilty of raping 13 inmates of his ashram and murdering a disciple, Ravi. The victims were all Sri Lankan Tamils. Along with Premananda, his chief disciple Kamalananda was also awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs.12,500 for abetting the crimes and tampering with evidence. The judge said Kamalananda should undergo a further threeyears` RI if he failed to pay the fine.
Kamalananda`s wife, Dr Chandradevi, was found guilty of performing abortions on the rape victims and was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and seven months. But, as she had already spent that period as an undertrial, the judge ordered that she be set free upon paying a fine of Rs.30,000. The judge also awarded life sentence to four other co-accused, all disciplesof Premananda. They were – Balendran, Mayilvahanan, Nandakumar and Satish. While Balendran was fined Rs.10,000, others were ordered to pay Rs.12,000 each. The judge said the fines collected should be used to pay compensation of Rs.5 lakh each to the 13 rape victims. The judge said the convicted prisoners would not be entitled to any remission considering the heinous nature of the crimes committed.
The judge delivered the verdict in a packed courthall where the godman and other accused were produced. Activists of some women`s organisations raised slogans against the godman when he was brought to the court. As many as 49 prosecution witnesses and 64 defence witnesses were examinedin the case which came to light after one of the victims, Sureshkumari, escaped from the ashram and exposed the sex scandal in early 1994.
Prominent among the prosecution witnesses was forensic expert Jayaprakash who established the identity of murder victim Ravi from a skull recovered from the ashram. The prosecution also roped in as witnesses several doctors in Tiruchi and Pudukottai who had attended on the girls raped by Premananda. One of the victims, Aruljothi, became pregnant and a DNA test done in Hyderabad established that Premananda was the culprit.Noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani appeared for Premananda who was arrested along with eight others in November 1994. Two of the accused later turned approvers. Premananda later told newsmen that he would appeal against the judgment.
Divyadevi, one of the principal disciples of Premananda, escaped immediately after the scandal came to light and her properties worth Rs.80 lakh were attached to the court. She is still untraced.
PTI adds: The godman was in a defiantly jovial mood after the judgment, as he smiled at photographers while being taken back to prison, and said: ”Truth will ultimately triumph.“ ‘Swami` Premananda`s sordid story unfolded in the middle of November 1994, when the girls he had raped came out with startling revelatory interviews to a leading English daily. The girls had sought shelter with the help of some women activists at ‘Udavum Karangal`, a charitable organisation in Chennai.
The interviews created a sensation, and the then AIADMK government, already plagued by a whisper campaign that the disgraced ‘hermit` was close to some of the ministers, swung into action within days. The Crime Branch-CID of the state police raided Premananda`s ashram at Viralimalai near Tiruchirappalli and arrested Premananda and others. But Divya, a mysterious associate of Premananda, who was known to the ashramites as Divya Mataji, managed to give the slip to the police as she was abroad when the scandal broke out.
Premananda, whose real name was Ravi, settled down in India in the early 1980s after fleeing Sri Lanka as a refugee. With the help of some close friends, he set up the ashram in sylvan environs. Nothing in the ashram`s external appearance suggested the sordid goings-on inside.
IRREFUTABLE DNA TEST EVIDENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
An epoch making 408 page judgment by judge R. Bhanumathi finally put an end to a case of debauchery of a self proclaimed “celibate” godman, Swami Premananda of Sri Lanka who came to Tamil Nadu as a refugee in the eighties. A straight case of establishing paternity through a standard DNA test was complicated by people and courts. The other crimes committed by the godman too came out as major revelations that spanned a three-year court trial finally culminating in a sentence of life imprisonment for two terms and a hefty fine of Rs.66,40,000. It is said he was involved in the rape of 13 girls in his ashram near Tiruchirapalli and for ordering the murder of a male inmate, all Sri Lankan refugees. Cases such as these are eye-openers and throw up a lot of issues to debate about people’s gullibility, indisputable scientific evidence, awe about expert opinion.
The unassailable evidence provided by the DNA finger printing conducted by Dr. Lalji Singh, Deputy Director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), and currently, officer on special duty at the Center for DNA Finger Printing and Diagnostics (CDFD) established the 45 – year old Swami Premananda as the biological father of the foetus as a result of rape of 19-year-old Arul Jyothi.
The DNA test evidence was presented by the prosecution based on four types of probes of international standards such as – the multi locus, single locus, PCR based VNTR loci and micro- satellite investigation. This was sought to be contested by the defence by having a British expert present the DNA test results. That there is a ban placed by the Medical Council of India on seeking such expertise from abroad when comparable expertise is available within the country seems to have been ignored by the Sessions court which was ordered by the High Court to send the foetal samples sent by the Tamil Nadu police to Dr. Lalji Singh. What is more astonishing is that the British expert whose report was presented by the defence lawyer Ram Jethmalani was neither based on tests conducted as per international standards (as were done by the CCMB) nor certified and supported by photographs as was done in the case of evidence provided by the prosecution. Further, the British geneticist’s report puts to shame British science where DNA finger printing originated and casts serious aspersions on the British lab which conducted the actual test. It goes to prove that the scientific expertise as is widely believed is not the exclusive preserve of the west but as much a prized possession enjoyed by the Indian scientific community. Dr. Woll, the British genticist admitted that the DNA evidence provided by the Indian scientists’ team to be far superior to the only short tandem repeat (STR) test he had done at another lab goes a long way in spreading the message across about the Indian expertise.
Even the court found the tests done at the CCMB far superior to those done anywhere abroad. It is a great victory to science and scientists of the so called “land of snakes and snake charmers” who, little known as it may be, that they follow rigorous standards and procedures for their scientific tests. Simply because a report is sought from a foreign expert, one cannot accept the results in awe even when it is not supported with proper photographs, documentation and due certification.
Cases such as Premananda’s provide a good opportunity to take science to such authorities for whom new technologies are relevant as well as to many a common man by making the DNA test public knowledge. Dr. Lalji Singh gives a lot of credit in this context to the Tamil Nadu police and commends the timeliness of their action in taking appropriate steps of obtaining the aborted foetal sample from Arul Joythi, and obtaining the court’s permission to send it for DNA testing.
Obtaining the foetus for providing evidence was crucial and of paramount importance in this case. The Swami despite the rape of 13 victims could not be brought to book until the clinching evidence of the DNA test results whereby it was shown that the foetal DNA pattern contained 50% of the bands from its biological father, the Swami, and 50% of the bands from its biological mother Arul Jyothi. Refuting the defence accusations of manipulation of foetal evidences Dr. Lalji said, “the courts must approach the scientific evidence in a scientific way and not suspect it and dub it as connivance with the police. It is impossible for any scientist to mix the sperm and the egg of the accused and the victim to obtain a DNA pattern, for it is a heritable occurrence”. The courts must be urged to adopt a scientific approach to find out the validity and the reliability of the test procedures than viewing the test results with suspicion.
Had the case gone against the CCMB evidence, it would have been a point for the multinational conglomerates to push themselves and their wares to set up shop on Indian soil on the pretext that such expertise was not available within our country, because DNA tests and other genetic tests are a big business abroad. Although there are a number of scientific institutions which carry out the DNA finger printing test including the Indian Institute of Science,(IISc) Bangalore, Tata Institute of Fundamental research, both Bombay and Bangalore, Madurai Kamaraj University of Life Sciences, Anna University, but none of them do the test regularly for anyone because of the repeated court appearances and long pendency of cases.
To standardize on the procedures and guidelines of such genetic tests whose results are sought by courts, Dr. Lalji Singh suggests setting up of a national committee and once the guidelines are laid down, results of such tests must be included in the evidence act as scientific evidence. The association for the promotion of DNA finger printing and other DNA technologies has set up a committee with the initiative from CDFD has formulated standards, quality assurance and guidelines for DNA finger printing. The committee has submitted the report to the association and once the suggested changes are incorporated, the document will be ready for finalization and printing. This document may be considered by the Government of India as a national document in setting up a national committee to review and make necessary changes. Currently, these Guidelines are being followed by the CDFD. Although, the DNA test used to be conducted at the CCMB before, since March 1996, the CDFD has been conducting the DNA and other genetic tests.
The CDFD is an autonomous institution of the department of biotechnology currenty housed in CCMB. It is proposed to have its own building near Himayat Sagar close to the A.P.Police Academy.
Narayanjot Kaurji,
Really the proverb of the owl is powerful metaphor as there are so many hurdles in getting justice. There is a complete channel--- that channel has hundreds of joints. If there is a single weak joint then the current will not pass and the energy that has been supplied from one end will not be passed on to the last end. So, fair trial is the need of hour. Justice can be served on the basis of evidences. The collection of evidences is a hard task.
I am thankful to you that you have admitted my point of fact and the matter will be discussed between members and it will be nice if we can reach to a fruitful results in the discussion.
I have given evidences regarding DNA tests trial and conviction as above. But such type of cases are rare. I hope with the above mentioned example the law regarding DNA and the application by the law enforcement agencies would be clear. How the victim can move further and how the investigation is being done it is a Herculean task.
First of all the Govt should take drastic steps to stop sexual harassment in the offices, working places and in the society. Unless and until the menace of sexual harassment is not checked the justice can not be made. when the civil society members winks and make discussion, the result to discussion limits to the blog and the purpose to put pressure on the Govt to check the moral laxity can not be achieved.
I am really thankful for being a part of discussion on the International issue.
Regards,
Rajneesh Madhok
