The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, 21 December said it has "no confidence in police" and ordered a CBI investigation into an ashram where minor girls and women were allegedly being kept in illegal confinement in the name of religious preaching, IANS reported.
Judges’ Observations
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, noting that an ashram cannot work under a "shroud of secrecy", asked CBI Director Alok Verma to set up a special investigation team to probe various FIRs of girls and women being allegedly raped after being lured into the ashram in Rohini area on the pretext of spiritual guidance.
The judges, who met the girls rescued from the ashram and their parents in their chambers, said they cannot even reveal what a 13-year-old girl told them about what was going on there, IANS reported.
Delhi High Court’s Orders
Saying “we have no confidence in the police” for not taking any action on about 10 FIRs lodged against the ashram and its members, the bench directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seize all records relating to FIRs lodged and entries in the ‘daily diary’ maintained by police in connection with alleged rape and suicides of women there.
Taking note that girls and women in the ashram were in dire need of medical help, it also directed Delhi’s Principal Secretary, Health to set up a medical team to go and examine the inmates.
On Tuesday, 19 December the court ordered a committee, which included Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, to conduct an inspection of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya and said this should be video-graphed.
The court referred to a similar situation witnessed in Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s ashram in Haryana’s Sirsa.
The court also earlier directed the Child Welfare Committee chairperson concerned, along with the committee, to visit the ashram premises and take step in accordance with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
Rescue Operations
41 minor girls who were illegally confined at an “ashram” in New Delhi’s Rohini were rescued on the evening of Thursday, 21 December. Raids at the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya on Wednesday, 20 December, revealed nearly 200 women and girls illegally confined at the “spiritual institute”.
The Delhi High Court ordered the raids after an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, alleged that females were confined at the “university,” some for 14 years or more, and that some of them had even been raped.
The Times of India quoted DCW members and lawyers who accompanied the police in the raids describing the ashram as “maze-like” with around a “hundred girls and women living in confinement in the name of spiritual teaching.”
The Indian Express quoted Nandita Rao, one of the advocates appointed by the court, as saying:
The inmates were kept in close confinement in dark spaces with no sunlight and a metal grill, with nowhere to exit. The sleeping area is also monitored and the girls have no privacy.
One of the inmates told The Indian Express that the captive girls were told that interacting with the outside world would be a sin.
They used to tell us that if we interacted with the outside world, we would be committing a sin. They kept telling us we would not survive. The baba had told me that I was one of his 16,000 ranis. He raped me on several occasions.
Many of the women refused to speak to anybody, few others who were lying sick had no idea about their sickness.
A bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar ordered Dixit to appear before the court if he can prove his innocence. The bench said:
Where is he? This inquiry (by the CBI) into the ashram, where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement will throw him in suspicion, if he does not appear.
Delhi Commission for Women’s Role in Crackdown
After the rescue of the 41 minor girls on Thursday, DCW chief Swati Maliwal also demanded the arrest of Dixit.
DCW Chief Swati Maliwal added that medicines and syringes and needles were found in large quantities, along with letters alleging sexual assault faced by the inmates.
“Suitcases full of letters with sexually explicit content addressed by women to Virender Dev Dixit were also found,” Maliwal said, as per The Times of India . Dixit is the alleged founder of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya.
The committee also sought age verification of the inmates alleging that most of them, according their appearance, seemed to be minors. Maliwal also suggested that all the inmates be removed from the ashram and sent to a safe place, like Nari Niketan, under the DCW's custody.
The committee described the building as a fortress with iron grilles and locks all around and surrounded by barbed wire on the sides, and Maliwal said that police had to break open many of the locked iron doors as the inmates were not cooperating.
The court demanded a reply on the whereabouts of Virender Dev Dixit, the founder and spiritual head of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya, by 22 December, and failing his appearance, it is likely to initiate action against him.
The counsel for the ashram, however, told the bench that its founder was not in Delhi and he has sent the message about the court's order through someone else.
(With inputs from IANS, Times of India, Indian Express)
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