By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram
The Kerala police have begun a probe into the ‘unnatural death’ of a Bihari youth charged with attempt to murder Mata Amritandamayi Devi, the hugging saint who has millions of devotees across the world.
Mystery over the death of 23-year old Satnam Singh Mann from Gaya in Bihar lodged at the Peroorkada mental health centre here continues.
Relatives of Satnam, who was arrested by the police four days ago after he advanced menacingly towards Matha Amrithananda Mayi in Vallikavu, allege he was beaten up while in custody. Police denied the allegation.
The postmortem of the body would be conducted at the medical college hospital here on Monday. During the inquest, several bruises were found on the body, said Satnam’s cousin Vimal Kishore. It is known, however, that a scuffle, or more, had taken place between Satnam and another patient(s) at the mental health centre on Saturday.
In Vallikavu, the Matha Amrithanandamayi Mutt organised a special prayer session condoling the death of Satnam. Mutt vice-chairman Amritha Swaroopanananda said that the Mutt was shocked at the incidents. “The mutt joins the family in their grief,” he said.
District collector in-charge P.K. Girija started a preliminary inquiry, while the Peroorkada police registered a case of unnatural death.Satnam’s father, Harendra Kumar Singh, is expected here by Monday.
Satnam’s other relatives who have reached here confirmed to the police that he was earlier under treatment for depression and was missing from his home since May.
Satnam was arrested on August 1 when he angrily pushed his way in the direction of Mata Amritanandamayi during her darshan programme. He was remanded to judicial custody on August 2 and sent to the Kollam district jail.
Prison superintendent Vinod Kumar said that during the late hour of August 2, Satnam took cleaning lotion kept at the toilet in the prison and poured it on eight other prisoners in his cell. As he behaved strangely, he was taken to the Kollam district hospital. As advised by doctors, he was shifted to the mental health centre here.
He was given sedation as he behaved violently.
Hospital sources said Satnam was admitted to the hospital by around 3am on August 3. After he was found to be stable, he was kept in a cell with another patient. However, following a scuffle between the two, they were kept in separate cells. By around 6.30pm on August 4, he was found in a collapsed state in the toilet area of the cell.
Subsequently, he was rushed to the medical college hospital where he died by around 8.15pm.
Satnam, reportedly doing his LLB course at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University in Lucknow, was reported missing for sometime.
Marks on Satnam’s body shock cousin
The death of Satnam Singh Mann has come as a rude shock to his cousin Vimal Kishore. “I had met him while in police custody the other day. He did not have any physical problem. However, now there are several marks on his body,” said Vimal.
Vimal, who sought a detailed probe into the incident, also said that though he had handed over a pair of clothes to Satnam before being remanded, he was found to be wearing a different dress when he died. “While in the police custody, he was allowed to wear only under garments,” said Vimal who came down to the state after being informed of Satnam’s arrest.
Satnam, son of businessman Harendra Kumar Singh, went missing from Bihar in May. “He was too much into spirituality and was highly informed. Finally he suffered some sort of depression,” recalls Vimal, who works with a national media in New Delhi.
Satnam’s family had even given ‘man missing’ advertisements in the local media in Bihar. Vimal, who was close to Satnam since his childhood, said Satnam was repeatedly telling a couple of words including ‘magnetic field,’ while he met him in police custody.
Satnam has three brothers, two of them studying for engineering and the other doing his CA in Delhi. His sister is in the US.
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August 6, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Satnam Singh was murdered by the prejudiced forces. He was neither mentally sick nor violent but his only mistake was that he had a high praise for Islam. He had read a number of good books on Islam and he liked this religion more than his life. His crime was nothing more than praising Islam at the stage of the Mata. He belongs to a highly reputed family in Sherghati and his grandfather was a close friend of my late father. Is it a crime for a citizen to speak of any religion he/she likes? Should he be killed for this? Is there not any other way to resolve this kind of matter? Why police slapped murder and other charges on him? who tortured him to the extent of death? He was a brilliant student of Law. who will compensate his loss to his family? Satnam was genius and his crime was that he commended Islam. Should he be murdered for this? Is it a crime to show dissent in the ashram of Mata? This needs to be investigated and Mata’s loyal policemen killed him for reciting Qoranic verses.
August 8, 2012 at 3:43 am
Death of any individual is to be condoled. And my condolences to the next of kins of Satnam. But your arguments are flawed. Reciting Quranic verses is not a crime and raising high praise for Islam is also not a mistake as you have written. And commending Islam is also not a crime as suggested by you. But the crime he committed was behaving like a hooligan and moving menacingly towards a person who is revered by thousands of devotees. I dont know whether what he read in the good books of Islam made him behave the way he behaved or not but if what he read was good he would have had good thoughts in him and he would not have acted the way he did.
If you read the life of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great teacher of Swami Vivekananda, you will find that the Paramahamsa lead the life of Muslim for a few days and when he was a Muslim he had hatred for everything Hindu.
I dont know whether I should say that the Good books you referred gives this feeling to the good followers.
September 23, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Check out this blog…the truth about what really happened to Satnam Singh Mann and more….
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