!st part of press release sent to NPR Radio - Ms. Ritu Vasu Primlani, a US citizen and award-winning environmentalist, is being falsely prosecuted by a sessions court in Bangalore, India based on charges brought forward by 102-year old, Saalumurada Thimmakka, that Ms. Primlani used her name to “make millions of dollars” and “shot to fame” through her US-based, award-winning environmental non-profit organization called “Thimmakka’s Resources for Environmental Education.” Ms. Primlani has been charged with criminal fraud, forgery, copyright violation , property theft, and IT theft. Ms. Thimmakka has also accused Ms. Primlani with taking her thumb impression on a blank paper and that the complainant’s age and her fragility, her health, her marital status and her ignorance was taken advantage of by the accused. On July 6, 2014, Ms. Primlani, who is also an athlete and is a visiting professor at business schools, was approached by more than a dozen policemen while performing at a comedy show in Bangalore. They demanded that she hand them her passport immediately or face arrest. On July 18, 2014, as Ms. Primlani was getting ready to fly to Kathmandu for a triathlon training, Ms. Primlani was arrested at IGI Airport and her passport was confiscated and impounded, following a Look out Circular put out under her name by IGP, Karnataka. She was placed in IGI Airport police station for the night, air transferred to Bangalore and produced in front of a magistrate (not within 24 hours as required by law). She was then detained by the police for three days, made to sleep on the floor and allowed to have a bath only once in three days. She was then put in judicial custody in Bangalore Central Jail, in the same prison cell as five women charged with murder. Ms. Primlani is currently out on bail and is facing fresh charges following the filing of the charge sheet, where they are looking to indict her on all counts despite lack of any evidence of wrong doing on her part. All charges against Ms. Primlani are entirely false, fabricated and malafide in intent and nature. As per IRS tax returns, the former non-profit organization grossed approximately USD 1 million in 13 years. US-based governmental agencies funded the non-profit based on deliverable-based contracts and not on the basis of Ms. Thimmakka’s name, which was virtually unknown in the US. All funds raised were used in operational expenses for delivering contracts to local counties in the US in certifying restaurants as ‘green’ or environmentally friendly. Tax returns and detailed P&L accounting statements of the organization have been provided to the police. The IRS documents are public record. Ms. Primlani and her organization have been very clear the money raised was for restaurants in the US, and has never made any claims that it was to benefit India or any Indians. Moreover, in the US, non-profits are prohibited from using funds for private gain. Ms. Primlani met Ms. Thimmakka only once in 2003 along with a US judge, Commissioner Marilyn Mackel, who has submitted an internationally apostilled letter showing Ms. Thimmakka’s verbal consent to having a non-profit named in her honour. Ms. Primlani, herself a committed environmentalist, wished to honour Ms. Thimmakka’s grassroots efforts in India to protect the environment by naming the organisation after her. No document was ever produced by Ms. Primlani for Ms. Thimmakka’s signature. The letter is not accepted as evidence, even though it was provided by an eyewitness — a US judge — at the only meeting between Ms. Primlani and Ms. Thimmakka.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 22:45:43 +0000
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