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NRI Pankaj Trivedi from USA murdered in Ahmedabad-A Non-resident Indian was murdered by four unidentified persons on June 15, 2006 evening just outside a club.
N UPDATED: (5A)

NRI Pankaj Trivedi wrote letter to US secret service for help

VADODARA, June 16, 2005

On May 19, 2006, Mr. Trivedi had written a letter to the Resident Agent In-charge of US Secret Service based in Dayton, Ohio, seeking protection for himself and his family and addressed to Todd R Bagby, Trivedi wrote: ''Seeking appropriate protection for me and my family from the leader and fanatic followers of 'Devotional Association of Yogeshwar' also known as 'Swadhyay', whose unethical and illegal activities I have exposed. The head of the organisation is Jayashree Talwalkar a.k.a Didi.''

Trivedi further wrote: ‘‘On April 1, 2006, outside the Newark airport in New Jersey, four unknown people threatened me and asked me to stop all my activities related to exposing the unethical work of ‘Swadhyay’ organisation. This is one of the several incidents that myself and my family have faced in the US and India ever since I started asking questions openly about the motives and financial activities of this organisation.’’

Claiming that he was also being falsely implicated, Trivedi wrote: ‘‘My biggest concern is that they have become so desperate now that the media has started to take notice of their unethical work that they might fabricate evidence against me and my family.

‘‘One such incident happened last week. They had falsely written a letter to an unknown person under my name claiming that I had intentions of hurting President George Bush. Rightfully, concerned, Secret Service agents investigated me. While I gave you my full cooperation since I didn't write that letter and have absolutely no political interest anywhere, my concern is that Didi and her followers are so powerful and well-connected that they will continue to do such things to harass me.’’

Trivedi claimed in his letter that he was associated with the Swadhyay Parivar since 1972. ‘‘At that time, the main objective was to spread the philosophical aspect of Hindu religion. However, over the last five years, I found the organisation has been collecting millions of dollars and not a penny spent on the cause for which the money was collected. When I started asking questions, I was harassed,’’ Trivedi wrote, adding that:

‘‘During my investigations I found’’:
* After 2001 Gujarat earthquake, Devotional Association of Yogeshwar collected about 4.2 million dollars from people in the US. The founder’s niece claimed that they have built around 40,000 houses for the earthquake victims, but a UN report suggests that only about 10 per cent of the money collected was spent.
* In the UK, the organisation had collected about 310,097 pounds for that cause but only about 10 per cent of it was transferred to India. I have a letter from the Government of Gujarat that this organisation has not built any houses and have no ‘‘MoU’’ with it.
* They have forcefully closed ‘‘Bhavnigar Temple’’ in Ahmedabad, claiming that it is a property of the trust. However the money to build temple was collected from people and government. I have registered a legal case against them to reopen the temple, in Ahmedabad Civil Sessions Division Court and the case no. is 567/ 2002.
* There are several complaints against me in various courts in Gujarat. On March 8, 2006, the High Court of Gujarat threw away all the cases against me and asked the followers to stop harassing me.

‘‘If anything happens to me or my family in India or the USA, Jayshree Talwalkar (aka Didi), her husband Niwas Talwalkar and their followers are responsible for that,’’ Trivedi wrote in the letter.

On Friday, a close friend of Trivedi, Jagdish Shah, said: ‘‘I am aware of that letter. Pankajbhai had spoken to me in that regard.’’

‘‘Two months back, an attempt was made to attack Trivedi in Gondal. He had lodged a complaint with the police there,’’ Shah said.

According to Shah, ‘‘Pankajbhai had also informed the Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of State for Home Amit Shah and Law Minister Ashok Bhatt about the irregularities done by Swadhyay members in using foreign funds for the earthquake. He had also expressed fear that he and his family are facing threat to to life.’’

Swadhyay members could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Meanwhile, the police are clueless about the absconding accused. Police said that while they were investigating the rivarly angle in Swadhyay, nobody had lodged a complaint in this regard. ‘‘So we are keeping the investigation open,’’ police said.