HC asks CBI to give report on Rohini ‘godman’s’ whereabouts

NEWDELHI: Terming as “extremely suspicious” the conduct of the founder of a north Delhi-based ashram, where girls were allegedly kept in illegal confinement, the Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the CBI to submit a report on his whereabouts.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said if the ashram was a “spiritual” place, why were the girls and women being kept behind locked doors.

It also said that if Virender Dev Dixit, the founder of the ashram, was preaching spirituality, he should come forward and there should be no need for the CBI to trace him.

The bench directed the ashram to submit its stand on an affidavit with regard to the various allegations made in a PIL against it by an NGO which has claimed that girls and women were illegally confined at the “spiritual university” in north Delhi’s Rohini area.

A three-member panel, appointed by the court to inspect the Rohini ashram and its other branches in Delhi, claimed the institute was making the inmates write letters and complaints making similar allegations of sexual assaults against their family members.

The committee, comprising Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal and advocates Nandita Rao and Ajay Verma, said the letters and complaints were being used to pressure the family members from initiating any action against the ashram or Dixit.

The committee members also told the court that FIRS were being lodged against family members on the complaints and letters by inmates of the ashram.

The bench said “prima facie there appears to be substance in the submission of the committee” that the ashram and Dixit may be utilising the complaints to make similar allegations against the family members as a “shield” to keep the inmates on the premises.