ISKCON to file defamation case against Maneka

 ANANTAPUR: ISKCON plans to sue BJP MP Maneka Gandhi over her reported comment that the organisation was selling cows to slaughter houses.

A team led by Goshala wing ministry head Damodar Das from Delhi and Iskcon co-in-charge Sriram Das inspected the goshala in Anantapur on Friday. It recorded video evidence and records to show the present state of cows under the care of Iskcon.

The Anantapur municipality dumps the stray cows/animals in the Goshala run by Iskcon, which then takes care of them.

The team verified documents and reviewed the condition of sick and injured cows sent in by the civic body for ‘protection’. Calves are being allowed to stay with the mother cows and few of them were being fed along with their mothers by Iskcon.

Damodar Das, who heads the Anantapur Iskcon, informed the committee that Maneka Gandhi had never visited the Anantapur Goshala. “There was no irregularity and the municipal corporation) is on mission to protect victimised cows by transporting them to the Goshala, though it is already congested,” he said.

Software engineer Madhusudhan, a native of Anantapur and working at Bengaluru, told DC that he was a regular visitor to the ISKCON goshala and fed cows there as part of his ‘goseva’. I never found any irregularity there,” he stated.

It is learnt that Iskcon plans to send a legal notice to Maneka Gandhi for her critical comments against the goshala.

Word spread that Kolkata Iskcon vice president Radha Das would file a Rs 100crore defamation suit against the former Union minister, local sources said no such decision was taken yet. “We would wait for the committee report first and then decide on the case,” the sources said.

Iskcon representative Yudhistar Das condemned Maneka’s allegations. “We are protecting cows not only in India but across the globe. This allegation was ridiculous. She never visited the goshala.”