UP ashram horror: 'Godman' drugged kids with 'Covid medicine', sodomised them

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Every evening, after the day’s work was done, children at an ashram in Shukratal, 30km from Muzaffarnagar, would wait in dread. The manager, they knew, would force them to drink alcohol calling it “coronavirus medicine”, watch porn and then sexually abuse them. If they refused, they would be beaten up.
For years, children have been sent to the ashram by trusting parents with limited means in hopes of a good education.But the ashram hid hell. “Maharaj would make us drink coronavirus medicine. Then he’d get naked and lie down, show us dirty films and do bad things to us,” said a 10-year-old from Mizoram in a statement to the Child Welfare Committee, which TOI has gained access to. The boy was among 10 rescued early this week after a tip-off from a whistleblower who had been evicted for objecting to the sexual abuse. The children are from Tripura and Mizoram — nine between seven and 16, and one 18. Medical examination confirmed four of them had been sexually assaulted, an FIR at the Bhopa police station said.
“I was brought here in October 2017 by the ashram’s cook. I lived like a slave, was asked to massage Maharaj and bring him alcohol and bidis,” said a 13-year-old from Tripura. “He would sodomise me.” Refusal to submit had consequences. “Saying no would lead to a thrashing,” said an 18-year-old from Tripura. The 10-year-old from Mizoram said the same, “If we refused, he would beat us.” Money their parents sent would be appropriated as “living costs”. The cook, Govind Das, recurs in the children’s accounts as the person who brought them to the ashram.
The “Maharaj” spoken of is a 'godman', Bhakti Bhushan Govind, who had been running the ashram with an associate, Mohan Das. The two have been arrested with charges under the Pocso Act, and the IPC for unnatural offences and voluntarily causing hurt. The ashram had not been registered under the Juvenile Justice Act.
“The Maharaj is a resident of Sisauli village (65 km from Meerut). He set up the ashram 12 years ago,” Muzaffarnagar SSP Abhishek Yadav said. He has no prior record. Locals said he had amassed donations in his previous stint as a godman in Chandigarh, which he used to set up his ashram here. The children had been engaged in the construction of the grand two-storeyed ashram building, they added.
The horrors came to light after an inmate, Hari Om, intervened. “I spoke to one of the children and was horrified. When Maharaj got to know I was trying to probe them, he kicked me out,” he said. So he called Childline. “What he said was very disturbing,” said Poonam Sharma, director of the Muzaffarnagar chapter of Childline. Her team, along with Bhopa Police, raided the ashram and rescued the children. Their parents have been informed but, given the lockdown, it is difficult to say when and how they could get here.
(The victims' identity has not been revealed to protect their privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)