Ganges crusader GD Agarwal was murdered, alleges aide: report
12 Oct 2018
IIT professor-turned-environmentalist GD Agarwal, who died in Haridwar on Thursday after he gave up food and water in his quest to save the river, was actually murdered in ‘a well-planned conspiracy’ by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, a report in The Quint quotes Swami Dayanand, a close aide and assistant of the Ganga activist, as saying.
In an exclusively interview to The Quint, Dayanand is reported to have alleged foul play behind Agarwal’s death.
Agarwal, who passed away in Haridwar on Thursday had given up food and water in his quest to save River Ganga and had been living only on honey and milk for 109 days. And on his last two days, he had given up these as well.
“This is, undoubtedly, a clear case of murder. He was fine all day and had also issued a press note saying he was ready to take the fruit intake and potassium intake prescribed by the doctors. The doctors then gave him some medicine after which they said he got a cardiac arrest. How is that possible? The cardiac arrest didn’t happen for 111 days when he was fasting. How did he die within 24 hours of being taken to the hospital? This is murder,” The Quint quoted Dayanand as saying
Holding minister for water resources and Ganga river rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari and his ‘greed’ that had deeply hurt Agarwal as primarily responsible for the ‘murder’, Dayanand also said Prime Minister Modi was also indirectly responsible for it.
“The person responsible for this is BJP's Nitin Gadkari. He has been bestowed the responsibility of Ganga rejuvenation. Gadkari is the person responsible for his murder. Even PM Modi is responsible because Agarwalji had written letters addressing directly to the PM. But the person primarily responsible for this is Gadkari,” Dayanand told The Quint.
Also alleging a foul play in Agarwal’s death is Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, who claims something was “done to him” after he was taken to the hospital that caused his sudden death.
He also told the media that Agarwal knew he was low on potassium according to his doctor's report, and had agreed to a 500ml intake, both orally and through IV.
Agarwal’s aides are now demanding a post mortem, and that his body be handed over so they can donate it to Kashi Hindu University, as per his wishes.
On Wednesday, Gadkari had said, "We have accepted almost all his demands (on cleaning of the Ganga). One demand was to ensure environmental flow and we have come out with a notification." The government on Tuesday had come out with the e-flow gazette notification.
The notification states the minimum environmental flows for Ganga river that is to be maintained at various locations on the water body.
The second demand, Gadkari said, was to bring legislation to protect the Ganga. He said the legislation has been sent to Cabinet for approval, following which it will be tabled in Parliament.
“The BJP calls itself dharm ka thekedaar. PM Modi had said that mother Ganga has called him and he wants to give the river as much as possible. But Gadkari knows nothing about the Ganga, he doesn’t worship it nor have sentiments for it. He only considers it a means of earning money. Agarwalji was very hurt because of his behaviour,” the report quoted Dayanand as saying.