This post was written by Alok Rajiv Deshpande as part of his investigative report on homes for mentally ill in Chennai.
He can be contacted at alok.fsf@gmail.com
Ambernath is a small town in the Thane district of Maharashtra. Gulabrao Karanjule, then the president of the city committee of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is the main accused of the Naresh Gaikwad murder case which took place in October 2002. Gaikwad was a Dalit Panther activist and the brother of well-known Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Shyam Gaikwad.
All this makes a very little sense while travelling in Chennai to visit private mental homes. But all of a sudden when Abdul Rasheed, a patient from one of these mental homes, speaking in fluent Marathi, claims that he was the vice-president of that same city committee and witnessed the murder of Naresh Gaikawad, your travel comes to a sudden stop.
Abdul Rasheed claimed that he was originally from Byculla in South Mumbai . His daughter beat him causing serious injury to his hand. He said that since his brain wasn’t working properly during that period, she beat him and threw him to snatch his flat in Mumbai.
Abdul spilled his secrets, as he claims them to be, when asked him about his other family. His sister stays in Ambernath (he gave her address and phone number, but the number was out of service) where according to him he was the vice-president of NCP’s city committee, and was working under the leadership of Gulabrao Karanjule. He also gave his address from Ambernath, mentioning the tiniest details.
Abdul is a mental-patient undergoing treatment in a private mental-home in Chennai. He landed in Chennai with broken hand and wanted to go to Padi, as his friend had advised him. On Chennai Central station he met a lady who offered him biscuit and tea. Later he was taken to an NGO called ‘Dayasadan.’ As per his account, he wasn’t treated on his injury and also the basic amenities were extremely bad. They used to bathe once in three days. There were no proper clothes and medical facilities were not available. He was rescued from there and was brought to the place, where he is staying currently.
“Gulabrao planned Naru’s (Naresh Gaikawad) murder in a meeting in his own office. I was there. He hired assassins, namely Indin and Papa. A builder called Nazir and an important leader from Shiv Sena’s city committee was also involved. The witnesses were threatened and given Rs. 5000/- each to keep their mouth shut. My sister’s brother-in-law Anjum provided a chopper to those assassins and later on became a government witness in the court hence was released on bail,” Abdul said. (The complete conversation with Abdul Rasheed is recorded and is available in Marathi. These are few of the important points from the conversation).
Interestingly, when Rasheed’s story was compared with the actual series of events, most proceedings turned out to be accurate. Rasheed’s case raises a number of questions. How does he know Gulabrao? How does he remember his sister’s address and phone number, but does not remember details about his journey to Chennai? Even if he is lying, why has he chosen a political murder to lie about? How does a mentally-ill patient know the tiniest of details about this murder? If he was a public figure in Ambernath, then does his family there know about his current status? Is the story about his daughter true or is there some thing he does not remember?
When told about Rasheed’s case, a psychiatrist from a reputed institution ridiculed his story calling it blabber. “Mental-patients do such talking. You can’t trust everything they say,” he remarked.
But the questions which arise after listening to Rasheed’s story are valid and need an answer.
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