A fast-unto-death is on,in quiet,against killing silence

The two boys who went missing from the Asaram Ashram gurukul in Motera were found dead on the banks of the river Sabarmati on July 3,2008,with parts of their bodies missing.

Theirs was one of the cases Congress leaders Shankersinh Vaghela,Arjun Modhwadia and Shaktisinh Gohil took up when they sat on their fast to counter Modi’s Sadbhavana Mission fast.

The Vaghelas are also demanding the scrapping of the Justice DK Trivedi commission,which the Modi government appointed to probe the case after the fathers of the boys went on an indefinite fast in 2008 demanding justice.

The fathers suspected their boys were victims of black magic which they alleged was practised in the Ashram.

Sitting in silence with garlanded pictures of the dead boys on a white mattress in the compound of their small house in Nirnaynagar,the Vaghela brothers just gesture to say they would observe silence till the guilty are punished.

Asked why they started their fast after the one by the CM,they say,“We wanted to do so after Modi’s fast so that the bureaucrats are free enough to take cognizance of our fast.”

Shantilal Vaghela wrote on a piece of paper,“The whole world knows that when the parts of a dead body are mysteriously missing,what could be the reasons. From Dipesh’s body,the entire respiratory system was taken out while from Abhishek’s body,his kidney and liver were missing.”

“The children’ bodies were not even eaten up to blame it on fishes and dogs. The truth is that children in the Asaram Ashram face the threat of black magic. The truth must come out but the Modi government-appointed DK Trivedi Commission is sitting on the case,” he added.

The Vaghelas say they feel cheated and their trust in the CM is gone.

Vaghela plays a video on his mobile phone showing Modi talking to mediapersons on July 22,2008. Modi is heard saying,“The High Court will form a special committee that will search for the truth. Let the accused be any powerful man,he would be behind bars. Justice has never failed in this state,and I am sure truth will win.”

Three years on,the families repent for sending their children to Asaram Ashram to study. The boys earlier studied in Swaminarayan Gurukul at Nirnaynagar till Class V.

Vaghela added,“We are not followers of Asaram at all. We had heard the education system is good in his gurukul. So,we sent our children only to know a month later that they were killed for black magic.”

The children were admitted in the gurukul on June 1,2008.

The Vaghelas are simply demanding that the real accused are arrested and they say they don’t mean the godman.

Dipesh and Abhishek were the only two boys in the family.