Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Victim unmasks sexual trick of Falahari Maharaj

- Manoj Ahuja manoj.ahuja@hindustant­imes.com

FIR Girl says godman wrote Om on his tongue with honey, asked her to lick it before assault

JAIPUR:A 21-year-old law student of Chhattisga­rh has accused an Alwar-based self-proclaimed sadhu of inviting her to lick his tongue as part of a ritual before sexually assaulting her.

The 58-year-old Kaushalend­ra Prapannach­arya, or Falahari Maharaj as he is popularly known, was arrested on the woman’s complaint on Saturday and sent to jail for 15 days.

“I am writing Om on my tongue with honey and you will have to lick it. This is how I have imparted knowledge to many people, the Maharaj told me. He then grabbed me…,” the woman alleged in her police report accusing the sadhu of rape.

According to the FIR, the woman went to his Alwar ashram on August 7 and planned to return that very day, but he asked her to stay the night.

“At about 7.30pm, Baba called me to his room and after sending his disciples away he shut the doors and sat on the bed,” the victim recounted in her complaint.

The “godman” then sexually assaulted the girl. “I went blank and could not react. He told me that he has made many people IAS, IPS and MLA and will make me a judge but asked what I will give him in return.”

“Maharaj then made me lie on the bed and said he was doing all this on instructio­ns from god.”

The FIR comments on the woman’s younger sister. “He said you don’t have a brother and your mother is too old now ... I can get you a son if you promise to sleep with me when you get married before consummati­ng your wedding,” the FIR reads.

The woman said he advised her to stay away from boys because young girls are easily misled. During the assault, the woman wrote in the FIR, there was a knock on the door.

“He hastily arranged his robes and threatened me with dire consequenc­es if I disclosed anything to anyone. I went to another room and cried the whole night,” she said.

Next morning his disciples dropped her at the railway station. After keeping quiet for weeks, the woman told the ordeal to her parents and they filed an FIR.

Sexual escapades of so-called holy men in India are making news after Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda quasi-religious sect, was convicted of raping two sadhvis this August in cases that date back to 2002.

On Friday, a sadhu was arrested on the charge of raping and impregnati­ng a mentally ill woman from West Bengal at his ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district. The suspect, Mohan Govind Das, was taken to West Bengal where the case was registered.

 ?? HT PHOTO ?? Falahari Maharaj at a court in Alwar on Saturday.
HT PHOTO Falahari Maharaj at a court in Alwar on Saturday.

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