The Delhi court ordered a probe by the CBI into an ashram in north Delhi where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.
Aghast at revelations that more than 100 women and minor girls were locked up behind metal doors in “animal-like conditions”, with many being sexually exploited for years inside a fortress-like ashram.
Taking note of the “seriousness and the sensitivity of the matter”, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the CBI director to forthwith constitute a special investigation team (SIT) which will take charge of all the records and documents pertaining to the case. The court issued its order following a hearing that lasted nearly four hours.
“There are cases registered in both Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. CBI shall investigate the cases which have been registered in Delhi as well as examine the daily diary entries and proceed with the inquiries and registration of the cases in accordance with law. In so far as the cases registered in Uttar Pradesh are concerned, the CBI shall file a status report within three weeks from today before this court,” it further directed.
The high court-appointed panel told the court that they were assaulted and confined for nearly an hour by some ashram inmates when it went to inspect the premises on Tuesday. It also informed the court that more than 100 girls have been kept there in confinement and most of them are minors.
The panel alleged that the girls were kept in animal-like conditions behind iron grills and surrounded by barbed-wire-topped walls. It also said that the girls have no privacy even while bathing.
NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, informed the court that a couple had lodged a rape complaint with the police, but no FIR had been registered till date. The NGO has alleged that girls were in confinement at the “university” for 14 years and more.
While producing one girl in the court, who, the NGO claimed, had managed to get out of the premises, it alleged that she was raped during her stay there, which she has not even disclosed to her parents. The NGO also alleged that girls confined at the ashram have committed suicide in the past, but police never registered a case in this regard.
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