(14th February 2004)
By questioning the goons, it was revealed that multiple gangs had given their ground level goons the task of assassinating Shreya Gandhi.
This hit close to the country, given that both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated.
And Shreya head-shotting a goon was still showing on the news channels. Not only in India, but across the world.
With some censoring, of course.
It happened on 10th February, and a press conference was called at BP head office on 14th, understandably for everyone to recover from the shock.
A total of 27 people aside from goons died in the incident, 21 from shooting, and the rest from stampede. And 52 people were seriously injured.
15 members of BP also died in the incident.
As Shreya entered the press conference room, camera flashes were shot on her face which visibly made her uncomfortable.
"I request that nobody uses camera flash, please."
No matter how cringe she found it, taking lives did affect her, even though they were trying to kill her. In that moment due to adrenaline, she wasn't affected mentally and focused on shooting down the enemies, but she has been having nightmares of the incident.
"Before anyone asks any questions, I will describe the incident as clearly as I can.
We were exhausted and were sleeping in the ground where the rally in Pune was supposed to happen. Police was also present, and many members of the party were also guarding the night. Someone in the crowd noticed a gangster taking out a gun, and she screamed. That alerted everyone, and I would have died if not for my trusted friend, Shazam Ali saving me by sacrificing his life.
Then I, and my bodyguards took cover in the stage. I also shot some of them in self defense, and it must be clear in the footage.
On questioning the captured gangsters by Mumbai Police, in our presence, it was revealed that the gangs connected to criminals like Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan were behind this.
One of the captured gangster, in Pune police's custody, died yesterday.
Because of Pune police's incompetence, intentional or unintentional, many lives were lost, and a gangster in custody which could have been questioned to determine the gang bases was also taken out.
So, we have helped everyone who was injured and dead in our march the best we can, and helped the file cases against the gangsters, and Pune police in the Mumbai High Court.
You will find the technicalities and more details on our official party website, bp.in/PuneAttack (don't click on the link. I just made it up), our blog, notice board, and government documents with police and High Court.
Now, you can ask questions."
"Shreya ji, how did you feel during and after the attack? How do you feel, as Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and even Mahatma Gandhi were also assassinated?"
"During the attack, as any normal person, my adrenaline kicked in, and the practice I have in self-defense turned out to be useful. After things calmed down a little and adrenaline levels lowered, I realized what happened. I am not really able to sleep normally right now due to nightmares.
How do I feel? Well, there is some fear. I will get more security, but what about my party members and my people? And due to the fear, there is rage and determination to remove the source of fear entirely. The gangsters, and the police officers and politicians due to which these gangsters are able to thrive will pay for everything they have done.
If they are brave enough to try to assassinate me, I can't even imagine what common people have to go through.
Whether we form government or not, we will take out all these elements. While being in government will make things faster, and efficient, not being in the government will not deter us against those monsters in human skin.
I am responsible to all my party workers, and my people. I will fight for every single person I am responsible for.
And, I take complete responsibility for accepting everyone in the party just with entrance exam and interview for only higher positions within the party, and relying on the police for confirming their criminal records.
Some gangsters without criminal records sneaked into our party as well. We will make sure that this never happens again. We have formed a Security in our party, headed by former IPS officer Mohan Shinde, which will ensure the safety of our party workers and rallies, processions, etc., and prevent any criminals from sneaking into our party again.
"Where did you learn to use gun? And why?"
"I learnt to use pistols, and some other types of guns in the US. I have proper license over all the arms I am able to use and own. It was necessary to learn self-defense, given the history of my family."
"Did you name your party as 'Bullet Party' because you will shoot down the public's problems?"
"Obviously no! Our job is to create an independent and strong police force which can even arrest MPs without any fear. Our job is to make institutions strong, so that even if we aren't in power at a certain point of time, people don't have to fear about law and order. And ourselves too. If we do the 'Bahubali' way of things, some other 'Bahubali' will later come after us when we are not in power.
Look at the state of UP, Bihar and Bengal. The police is no different than goons of the party in power.
As you might have seen, our party symbol is a Bullet Train. Our ideology is being efficient, fast, and a platform to connect intellectual and good people to the national politics.
One of our dream project is to bring Bullet Train in India, which has started half a century ago. Trains are the easiest way of transport, and alleviates poverty. Bullet Train as we intend will be a separate entity from incredibly loss making and inefficient railways, and be punctual like in Japan.
Imagine reaching Bengaluru from Mumbai in 3.5-4 hours. That will reduce the load of traffic by a lot.
Actually, I took a lot of time to decide whether to name the party Metro Party or Bullet Party, since we intend to bring Metro in both of the capitals of the states we are currently contesting in.
But, BP sounds good, right? Like, if your BP raises due to corrupt governments, choose BP."
"Will you resume your march?"
"Actually, we were denied permission by the police after the incident until the election results are announced, in both Maharashtra and Karnataka.
On 29th February, we will directly protest in Delhi in front of the Supreme Court. If it denies us permission, we will protest outside of Supreme Court's territory.
Out of the 42,597 cases that have been filed in the court until now, we want a joint hearing of all the cases, immediately. Not just opening two or three cases. Does Supreme Court thinks that it is a joke?
If Supreme Court doesn't consider genocide an emergency matter over other cases, then we don't think the judges should be given any salary and vacation. British judges took two month vacations to visit their family in Britain. Why do 'milords' want such long vacations when lakhs of cases are pending?
Do 'milords' even want to apologize for not delivering justice, and restructure their system to be more efficient and less political and nepotist?
Our march may have been stopped, but our protests wouldn't."