Noting that an ashram cannot work under a “shroud of secrecy”, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the CBI to probe an ashram in Rohini where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar was critical of the police for not taking any action on about 10 FIRs lodged against the ashram and its members. “We have no confidence in the police. The FIRs and DD (daily diary maintained by police) speaks volumes,” the Bench remarked.
Direction to founder
The Bench directed the CBI’s director to constitute a special investigation team forthwith to probe various FIRs of girls and women being allegedly lured into the ashram on the pretext of gaining spiritual guidance before being raped.
During the course of the hearing, the judges met the girls recovered from the ashram and their parents in their official chambers. The Bench said they cannot even reveal what a 13-year-old girl said to them about what was going on in the ashram.
It has directed Virender Dev Dixit, referred to as the founder and spiritual head of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya at Vijay Vihar in north Delhi not to leave Delhi. The court also called for the complete list of girls and women currently lodged in the ashram.
Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal — who was part of a High Court appointed panel which visited the ashram last night — said that some kind of illegal sex racket was going on in the ashram. She said the girls in the ashram were not in their senses and looked like they were under the influence of drugs.
Ms. Maliwal said that the panel members were assaulted and confined for about an hour by some ashram inmates when it went to inspect the premises. She said the police had to break open many of the locked iron doors as the ashram inmates were not cooperating.
Age verification
The panel sought age verification of the inmates of the ashram, alleging that most of the girls there looked like minors. The High Court has now ordered the city government to send a team of doctors to examine each of the inmates at the ashram after the panel said many of the girls were sick and received no medical attention.
It also directed the concerned Child Welfare Committee chairperson to visit the premises and take steps in accordance with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
Ms. Maliwal said the girls and women were housed in unhygienic and “animal-like conditions with no privacy even for bathing. Even the bathing area consists of a space with four water taps and no walls”.
‘Building a fortress’
The panel described the building as a “fortress with iron grills and locks all around and surrounded by barbed-wire on the sides”.
“Why do you need so many iron grills and locks… If you are running an ashram or ‘sanstha’ you should be completely open,” the Bench remarked, directing the commissioner of North Delhi Municipal Corporation to inspect the building and take action in case of any illegalities.
The High Court’s direction came on a petition by an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, alleging that several minors and women were being illegally confined at the ashram and not allowed to meet their parents.
It informed the court that a parent had lodged a rape complaint with the police, but no FIR had been registered till date. It said a female inmate committed suicide at the premises earlier this year but no action had been taken. While the court had on Tuesday directed the panel to recover three girls, only two of them could be recovered. It told the lawyer appearing for the ashram to get the whereabouts of the third girl and posted the case for hearing on Thursday.
