Absconding Baba last spotted in Nepal: CBI tells HC

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of Monday informed the Delhi High Court that self-styled Godman Baba Virendra Dev Dixit, accused of running a sex racket in the garb of imparting spiritual knowledge, was last spotted in Nepal in 2017 where he goes by changing his name to evade the law.

Appearing for the CBI, the counsel informed a bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C Hari Shankar that Dixit was last spotted in Nepal on July 2, 2017 along with Neelam D’silva, wife of Deepak Anthony D’silva, an associate of the Baba.

“Dixit is absconding and was last spotted in Nepal. He has been using various names like Virendra Dixit, Virendra Kumar etc. It was only by his picture that we could identify him,” the CBI’S counsel informed the court.

Following this, the court directed the CBI to file a status report in this regard.

The court expressed its displeasure on the non-appearance of Dixit questioning his counsel, Amol Kokane, about his whereabouts. “You tell us one social, religious leader who is doing such an act in our great country,” the bench said after Kokane informed the court the Baba does not stay at one place since 1998 after he was falsely implicated in the rape cases.

The bench also asked Kokane whether locks and cages were still being maintained at the ashram. The court’s query came while hearing a plea moved by an NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment which alleged that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined at the “spiritual university” here and are not allowed to meet their parents.