CHENNAI--Notified by telephone on November 12, 2007 that it had been completely cleared of allegations of fiscal impropriety, the Blue Cross of India on November 29 was still trying to retrieve files taken on September 28 by inspectors from the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The CBI raid on the Blue Cross followed a series of raids on the offices of the Animal Welfare Board of India and the homes of current and former AWBI staff. Blue Cross of India chief executive Chinny Krishna had served on the Animal Welfare Board in the past, but not since the board was reconstituted after the election of the present Indian national government in mid-2004.
Informed sources told ANIMAL PEOPLE that "a case seems to have been registered" against one former AWBI employee, "and some cases seem on the anvil against others," but no details have been forthcoming beyond those reported in the October 2007 ANIMAL PEOPLE investigative feature "Why did the Central Bureau of Investigation raid the Animal Welfare Board of India?"
Assessed ANIMAL PEOPLE, "Disputes over the allocation of grant money, partisan politics, and enforcement of laws governing livestock transportation and slaughter have become involved. Yet pursuit of public stature and vengeance for past frustrations and humiliations appears to have most visibly motivated the persons whose charges instigated" the CBI probe.
The most prominent complainants appeared to be then-Animal Welfare Board member S.K. Mittal, who has not been reappointed; Naresh Kadyan of PfA-Haryana, a sound-alike organization which is not part of the national People for Animals network founded in 1984 by Maneka Gandhi; and Gouhar Azeez, founder of an organization called Bharatiya Prani Mitra Sangh.
Mittal and Kadyan responded at length to the ANIMAL PEOPLE coverage, chiefly reiterating statements which had already been quoted or summarized.
Mittal objected to the description of himself as "a first-time Animal Welfare Board appointee with relatively little background in animal welfare," claiming 15 years of service on the board of a Mysore cow shelter. Mittal also objected to another Animal Welfare Board member's description of his political allies as "gang of assorted meat traders."
"I am not an orthodox vegetarianism propagator," Mittal acknowledged, "though I am pure vegetarian and cannot eat even onion & garlic. Certainly I am not one to force my eating habits on others."
ANIMAL PEOPLE summarized a November 2006 report by Puneet Nicholas Yadav of the Mumbai Daily News & Analysis, who posed as a go-between for former Indian national cricket team captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Pataudi's son, actor Saif Ali Khan, to investigate an allegation that Kadyan was willing to withdraw testimony against them in a poaching case, in exchange for
fundraising help. Yadav extensively quoted and paraphrased Kadyan's
statements, including his attempts to amend what he had said after
Yadav identified himself as a reporter.
Kadyan repeatedly e-mailed a one-line follow-up published later by the Daily News & Analysis: "Reacting to the story carried in DNA on Monday, saying 'Witness will help Pataudi, for a price', Naresh Kadyan told DNA that he had been misinterpreted."
Veterinarian John "Jose" Yohanan, who criticized Mittal's role at a cattle race, e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE that the race had only been held for about 20 years, not the 120 years that the organizers claim in trying to defend it as "traditional."
PfA-Trivandrum chief executive Leela Latheef wrote that, "The name of Avis Lyons' organisation in Trivandrum is Animal Rescue Kerala, not Animal Rights Kerala." Both PfA-Trivandrum and ARK have had issues with Mittal as well as local officials. Lyons in September 2006 trained 25 dogcatchers to help a municipal Animal Birth Control program--but the program never started, the dogcatchers became dog killers for hire throughout the region, and
Lyons was in February 2007 charged with assault after confronting
some who had captured a van-load of sterilized and vaccinated dogs.
Lyons as of November 20, 2007 was trying to bring media pressure to bear to halt yet another dog massacre, this one in Kallihoor Panchayath.
Source: ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007.
