E-Paper
‘Gau rakshak’ German woman living in UP alleges extortion, threat to life
The 61-year-old animal rights activist, now popularly known as Sudevi Dasi, is a recipient of India’s fourth-highest civilian honour Padma Shri.
German-born Friederike Irina Bruning, a recipient of India’s fourth-highest civilian honour Padma Shri, has alleged extortion and threat to life by a group of locals in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura where she runs a cow shelter, according to officials. In her complaint, the 61-year-old animal rights activist, now popularly known as Sudevi Dasi, mentioned a trespassing incident in October 2020 when the accused fought with the workers and brandished firearms. She has alleged a repeat of such an incident in December last year.
“When I intervened to save one of the workers, I was hurled with abuses and given life threats by the accused. They demanded extortion money or otherwise they would assault us regularly," she claimed.
Dasi said that the accused created a similar episode on May 25 even after she complained about the matter to the Mathura senior superintendent of police twice in January this year. She has alleged that they assaulted workers and broke down the CCTV cameras installed on the cow shelter premises.
Superintendent of police (city) Martand Prakash Singh told news agency PTI that an FIR has been lodged and the matter is further being probed. According to officials, the FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 147 (rioting), 452 (trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt).
"The local police circle officer and the sub-divisional magistrate have also been to the Radha Surabhi Gaushala on Kaunai Road in Govardhan area of Mathura where she lives and works to review the situation," PTI quoted Singh as saying.
The accused in the FIR have been identified as Girdharilal Sharma, Sanjay Sharma, Kanha Sharma, Preeti Sharma, apart from six to seven unidentified persons.
Dasi, who first came to India as a tourist in 1978, has been engaged in social service and has been working for animals in the Braj area in western UP for the last four decades. The Padma Shri awardee is a “gau rakshak” who tends to hundreds of cows at ‘Radha Surabhi Gaushala’ that are homeless, abandoned, sick, blind and badly injured. In 2019, the German national threatened to return her Padma Shri over denial of visa extension and then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had to step in to resolve the matter.
(With PTI inputs)
