The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (December 20) directed the CBI to probe a case of alleged sexual assault on women and minor girls within the residential facility of an ashram/meditation centre in Vijay Vihar in the Rohini area of Delhi.

The plea filed by the NGO Foundation of Social Empowerment had alleged that the girls living in the premises of the educational institution were not allowed to leave the area or meet their respective families. On Tuesday the court had asked the Delhi Police, Delhi government and DCW, to visit the place and assess the situation.

Without making any direct references of Ram Rahim or the Dera Sacha Sauda sect led by him, the Delhi High Court bench said that similar activities were going on in Sirsa. The court has also ordered that a medical team will examine all the girls of the ashram.

An alleged victim had stated in the court that the people at the ashram tried to brainwash girls and women and sexually assaulted them under the pretext of religious acts. She submitted that she was left by her parents out there for a two month course during which she was sexually assaulted, brainwashed into believing that no wrong was committed and the aggressors were manifestations of God.

The Delhi Police on Wednesday raided the ashram as per the high court’s order and present with them was the DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal. From the ashram, called the Adhyatmik Vishwavidalaya of Rohini the police confiscated what they said were bundles of injections and medicines.

The police had arrested the Baba named Virender Dev upon the inspection done by the team constituted by the ACJ bench Delhi High Court. The police had arrested two more person from Rohini based ashram.

According to an aged inmate of the ashram, who spoke to tejh media: “What we were doing is actually kanyadan, which is a holy matter and that was the only thing that was going on.”

—India Legal Bureau​

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