Your Excellency the Honourable President of India,

 

I write with the greatest respect to draw your immediate and urgent attention to the case of Daniel Robinson Esq (Government of India vs Daniel Robinson , file no 867/06.

 

I am a British National, daughter of UK Ambassador Sir Harold Beeley, now deceased, and long-term member of the Indigenous Horse Society of India where my active collaboration with the representatives of the Marwari Horses in particular have been well documented and chronicled by your press.

 

I love India, love my work here, love the people, the culture and most of all the great heart of this great country. I would not knowingly wish to jeopardise my work, the status of my colleagues or my own standing in this country.

 

I am, on humanitarian grounds, moved to make this petition for mercy on behalf of the afore-mentioned Daniel Robinson.

 

I hope , by now, that you will have been aware of his case .

 

Some time in October last year, Daniel Robison wandered into a restricted military zone after a 3000 kilometre trek across the Himalayas, suffering from prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures, in poor health (by his own standards) and accompanied by his two pack horses who were in extremely critical condition, one of them being in foal.

 

Daniel has been held in the Chamoli Distt. of Uttranchal since his arrest and he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment on January 9th in the lower Gopeshwar Courts.

 

I believe the Government Advocate is planning to persuade the judiciary system to increase the one year to anywhere up to ten years on account of the following.

 

Daniel was moved from his original police cell to the hospital by kindly members of the Police Force, on account of their pity for him having to share a small cell with several other prisoners and his asthma problems. Perhaps Daniel himself was not aware of their efforts to minimize as best they could his discomfort.

 

Unfortunately he then broke parole after hearing his sentence to find the judge, assure him of his innocence ad protest the injustice of his sentence, for which he was also fined Rupees 25.000.

 

Clearly this is the behaviour of a desperate and incredulous man who suddenly finds himself a victim of his own ignorance, suspicion erring the far right of caution, and despair.

 

Of course he entered into India illegally! He was not prepared, and seems to have only done so in a state of emergency.

 

As the Delhi Pioneer has already stated, the inability to tell the difference between an eccentric traveller who sold his boat to finance this expedition, and a dangerous espionage agent reflects very poorly on a legal system that, in this case, might not have other more important business to attend to.

 

We are now coming to the end of February.

 

Has he not suffered enough?

 

However absurd Daniel's quest may appear to hard-working people the world over who do not have the time or the luxury to follow their dreams, however irrationally he may have behaved upon sentencing, can any one of us say in all honesty that we might not have made the same mistake in the same way, from frustration, ignorance or fear?  Might we not all behave out of character to some degree under prolonged stress, less than average conditions and hopelessness?

 

I have been contacted by The Long Riders’ Guild, a meritorious society of explorers, travellers, writers and adventurers, who pursue educational, geographical and historical pilgrimages on horseback, often for charity, sometimes to break with the confines of their societies, always with the intention to test themselves, to educate others and to experience the world and all its countries first-hand.

 

I have also been contacted by Daniel Robinson's family, the UK and the USA press, the British High Commission and have spoken with both his lawyer in Gopeshwar and his lawyer in Delhi.

 

As a foreigner I am not entitled to put up his bail.

 

Nonetheless the IHSI is willing to pledge their support to his case .

 

The second issue are Daniel's horses. One of them was in foal. Part of his agitation these last few months is the great concern regarding their well-being and whereabouts. We do know that they were last with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. Our society routinely deals and interacts with the Government bodies regarding import/export of horses.

 

We request that you authorize us to proceed with the recovery of these horses, their transferral to the Delhi quarantine station and that they be in our care until Daniel decides what to do with them. He will also need to give us his permission as he is still presumably their owner.

 

As President of India, the care-taker of an extraordinary legacy , you have the power to intercede with the harsh sentencing of a human being who is clearly not a smuggler, a spy or a terrorist.  If Daniel Robinson has not learned a lesson in humility from his experience of the Indian legal system, that is for God to pronounce judgment on  and not Man.

 

I beg you to use your influence and authority with the courts, the judge in question, and reunite Daniel with his family , his horses and his freedom.

Most respectfully,

Francesca Kelly