In early February, it was reported that a man belonging in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Roshan Pandey, who is the National President of the Rashtriya Hindu Dal, went out to cover the ‘Masjid’ text on the signboards of Gyanvapi in Varanasi, with ‘Mandir’ stickers, and rightly so, after the ASI survey report concerned with the Gyanvapi matter revealed that the mosque structure constructed on the said land was built by Aurangzeb on a much older Hindu mandir underneath.
In another colossal victory for the Hindu side of the conflict, the Hindus also got the right to conduct Puja in one of the cellars, and therefore, Pandey went on to cover the ‘masjid’ portion of the signboards with ‘Mandir’ stickers, so that tourists are not misguided in the world-renowned destination of Bhagwan Vishwanath’s Kashi. But Pandey did not know then, that a plain paper sticker will turn his life upside down, and the Varanasi police will force him to run from pillar to post.
Speaking with GoaChronicle on the latest happenings in his life after the buzz of the sticker incident covered by the media died down, Roshan Pandey said, ‘The circumstances now are such that fabricated cases were dumped on my name by the Lanka police station SHO, Shivakant Mishra, in Varanasi. When I was implicated in false police cases by him, I got to know about the same through newspapers. This was when I realised that I was not even distantly related with any of these cases, and I did not even know the people concerned.’
Pandey further said, ‘The said criminal cases were shown to be from the years 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2019 as well. Then, I went online and with the help of the FIR numbers, I retrieved copies of the filed FIRs. These were cases I had no idea about and these concerned an unknown culprit named Roshan Pandey as well. One case was “453/2023” of the Lanka police station, and the culprit mentioned in the same was one Roshan Pandey, a student of the BHU. This criminal case was also associated with me.’
‘This was when I asked the police as to what pressure they faced to have dumped fake police cases on my head, and to this, they retorted, “Tumhare kehne se ho jaata hai kya?” (Your saying won’t make a change). After this, I gained access to the contact number of the complainer which is on an FIR, and called him. I asked him directly as to whether he had filed a police complaint against me, and he replied that it was not me he had complained against, but some other Roshan Pandey, who is from Ballia. Then, I said that the police were looking for me in the same case, and they also gave statements to the media about the same.’
This case, Roshan revealed, was a case under the SC/ST Act, and the police had told the media that he already had the case going on against him, after the ‘Mandir’ sticker episode.
After Pandey spoke with the complainer, the latter confidently said that the police are at fault, and went on to speak with the SHO. This was when the DCP took to Twitter to clarify that the said culprit was a different Roshan Pandey.
‘With this, I kept this case at bay as I had the required evidence like the call recordings between me and the complainer.’, the Rashtriya Hindu Dal National President divulged.
He then continued, ‘Another false case I was implicated in was when a controversial poster was made viral, with my name on it. Neither do I have an idea about who released the poster nor did the police investigate into the matter. The police blamed me of circulating, between Muslims, a poster of sorts online, in which Prophet Muhammad was equated with a pig! I asked them what ID was used to circulate the controversial content, to which the police replied that it was a WhatsApp group I had used to do the same.’
‘After getting to know of such brazen accusations, I asked the police to prove it was me who did this, and I even asked them to check my phone, and told them if I am the culprit, they can incarcerate me. But these were things I did not have even an iota of idea about, let alone doing them myself. This is what the police have been doing with me. The police harassed me and abused me when I called them out.’, Pandey added.
The police directly came to my house and beat a woman of my family black and blue. 50-60 policemen entered my home, without a single female cop, and seeing a female relative of mine alone at home, they pushed her onto the bed and beat her up brutally behind locked doors.’
Roshan then revealed how his female family member was also dragged around by her hair and was continued to be beaten with shoes, as if he were a gangster.
‘If putting up the mandir sticker was a huge crime, I was not running away, the police could have arrested me, and I would have co-operated, even if they would have thrown me in a jail. But the police simply registered a complaint in this matter, and filed these other fake cases, and a team of 4 police stations together broke the lock of my house, that of my room, barged in forcefully, even when the lady who was beaten, informed them that I was not at home then.’, stated Roshan.
It startled Roshan Pandey when he got to know that different police cases in 4 police stations came up against him, overnight! He revealed that he had to ask for a bail as there was no other option, and no other Hindu stood by him during this time of crisis.
Commenting on the UP government, Pandey stated, ‘This “Hindutvawadi” nature of the government is mere eyewash. Such “Hindutvawaad”, wherein an individual fighting for the cause of Hindutva, is tortured by the state police, shall be kept to the government itself.’
‘The SHO told me that “Meri kya aukaat hai? Lucknow shaasan se Aadesh aaya hai” (Who am I? I have received orders from the Lucknow government). Even the ACP and the DCP told me the exact same thing. Then, I asked them whether they were ordered to implicate me in fake cases!’, Pandey further stated.
He then asked, ‘Does this mean that whosoever is fighting for Hinduism in Uttar Pradesh will be persecuted?’ Pandey then said how it is not today that he has been raising his voice for Hindus, but for the last 10 years, and Kamlesh Tiwari, who was brutally murdered by Jihadis was the president of the Rashtriya Hindu Dal.
After Tiwari was killed in Lucknow, Pandey moved to Varanasi from there, but continues to work for Hindus.
Before putting up the ‘Mandir’ sticker on the signboard, Pandey had asked the administration to rewrite the boards, and had also written a letter to the tourism department, but nobody listened, even after the ASI report made things more than clear.
For a mere sticker, not only was Pandey tortured, his family member was also beaten, along with the police threatening and beating the other tenants in the building he lives in. And when a little girl recorded these doings, the police forced her to delete the clip and destroyed her mobile phone.
The condition is such, that Pandey’s landlord commented, ‘I am 80 years old, but not once in my whole life, have I seen the police beating someone so mercilessly.’
