Justice for Premananda

The thousands of people who know Swami Premananda are outraged and deeply disturbed by the unusually severe sentence given by the New Delhi Supreme Court on 5th April 2005 .

The case against Swami Premananda, accusing him of multiple rape and murder, was brought by the Indian CBCID in November 1994 and the initial guilty verdict was appealed in the High Court and Supreme Court, with unusual and shocking results.

The charity loving, selfless Hindu monk, who has been denied all bail and proper health care, has been sentenced to a double life sentence in the highest Court in India, a sentence which itself is illegal according to Indian law.

We maintain and firmly believe that the entire case against Swami Premananda is false and fabricated and that it is a plot against him and his mission to completely spoil its future and stop all its activities.

"The fact that [this case] has come to Court, that [Swami Premananda] has been found guilty, that he was given an unheard of sentence, which has now been confirmed in appeal - I find this very difficult to understand from the experience I have as a lawyer and a judge. (...) Any person who reads through the evidence would come to the conclusion that Swami is innocent." - Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, Supreme Court Judge of Sri Lanka, now retired.

"The DNA case against Swami Premananda is a fabrication from start to finish. This deception throws a terrible shadow over the validity of DNA fingerprinting if now there are scientists who are prepared to misuse it to find the innocent guilty." - Dr. Wilson J. Wall, world renowned expert on DNA. His expert forensic evidence was totally rejected by the Courts as being biased.

"Police brutality having been proved, it must be said that the police committed many serious offences under the Indian Penal Code in their quest for securing false evidence in this case and they have suppressed everything, which could have helped the accused to disprove the charges. This trial ceases to be a civilized trial governed by the rule of law. It is an outrage and an injustice ." - Ram Jethmalani, Senior Advocate and former Law Minister of India .

"I have confidence in the Divine Mother that truth will win soon. If a rough diamond is to be made into a priceless gem it must be cut on many sides. Only the stone knows the pain of the cutting. Then it has to be well polished. Likewise, Divine Mother has put me in prison with a certain purpose and that is to help those in the world to live happily, forgetting their sorrow and sicknesses.

Wherever I am, whether in a jungle, a house, the Ashram or in prison, I will always keep smiling. That smile will not change. The day the smile stops, know that I have attained samadhi."

SWAMI PREMANANDA (in 2002)