Delhi: Police raid Rohini ashram, rescue 41 minor girls

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Thursday raided rape accused Virender Dev Dixit's Ashram in Rohini and rescued 41 minor girls from there. Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal, who was present at the ashram known as 'Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya' at the time of raids, said the atmosphere inside the building was frightening. "The girls were kept in the ashram in such a way that they were unable to talk. Even their sleeping place was being monitored. I drank from water kept inside the ashram and my head started spinning," she told the media. "These girls will now be counseled, their parents will be contacted and their age shall be verified," she said. Rape accused baba Virendra Dev is untracebale. An NGO has alleged that girls and women were kept at the "university" for 14 years and more. The Delhi High Court court had on Wednesday dubbed the situation in the institute -- Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya -- located in north Delhi's Rohini as being "similar" to that witnessed in Gurmeet Ram Rahim's ashram in Haryana's Sirsa, but without making any direct reference. 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 the police never registered a case. Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi Police had conducted raids, which went until late night and the presence of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta, Delhi Commission For Women chief Swati Maliwal and a group of lawyers. Maliwal had claimed that when they reached the ashram, it took more than two hours to meet the girls and most of them were minor. "We were also attacked in the ashram and held hostage for one hour," said Maliwal. She had said that in the institute, letters about alleged sexual assault faced by the inmates, were found from a box and also certain injections and medicines were also found in huge quantities. The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the CBI to investigate the alleged illegal confinement of girls and women in the ashram where they were kept in "animal-like" conditions behind metal doors in a "fortress" surrounded by barbed wire. (With inputs from PTI)