Patna: Police in Bihar are conducting raids after three nuns were allegedly gang-raped at gun-point in an ashram (religious retreat) in the state by none other than the people tasked with the responsibility of looking after the hermitage, in a grim reminder of Haryana’s self-styled “god man” Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s sexual assault on two women.
All the accused are absconding. The incident took place at Sant Kutir ashram located at Bahiyara More under the Govindgnaj police station in Nawada district. Although the incident took place last month, the case was registered only a few days ago while the statements of the victims were recorded in the local court on Thursday.
As per the complaint registered with the police, the nuns were cooking food in their room on the fateful night when some six men knocked on their door. “Once we opened the door, they held us hostages, dragged us to a separate room and gang-raped us at gun-point,” one of the victims told the police. According to the victim, the men were from the same hermitage, and during the rapes some men kept guard outside the door.
The nuns alleged they were constantly gang-raped for five days from December 12 to 17. The men fled the scene after warning the victims against reporting the rapes to the police. Of the three, two victims hail from the Gaya district of Bihar while another belongs to Uttar Pradesh. The victims said they had fled the scene as the men had threatened to kill them if they reported the matter to the police, but returned when they were told to come and register a complaint with the police to seek justice. Subsequently, the victims registered a formal complaint with the police on January 4, 22 days after the incident.
Soon after the case was registered, police conducted a medical examination of the victims on Wednesday, before their statements were recorded.
“We have registered a formal complaint against the accused persons and raids were being conducted to nab the absconding accused persons,” the local Nawada district superintendent of police Vikas Barman told media on Friday.
Reports said the victims have been staying at the hermitage for about 10 years, even travelling to faraway places to deliver religious discourses. The incidents of rape remain a matter of grave concern in Bihar, and according to an official report, 1,035 cases of rapes were reported until October 2017. In 2016, 1,008 cases of rape were reported, 1,041 in 2015, 1,127 in 2014 and 1,128 in 2013.
