Ahmedabad: Father approaches Gujarat HC, alleges daughter held captive in ashram

A Bengaluru resident has approached the Gujarat High Court alleging that his daughter was being kept captive at an ashram located in Hathijan area of Ahmedabad.

The ashram, as claimed by the father, belongs to the religious leader Nithyananda.

"We have requested the administration to produce the girl before us. Why is that my daughter is not being allowed to meet me, while her videos are surfacing every once in a while? I suspect there is something very wrong that is why I have requested the court to intervene in the matter," Sharma, the father of the girl, told reporters here on Monday.

"Today we filed a habeas corpus petition in the Gujarat High Court to get the custody of the girl from the ashram administration," the advocate from the girl's family side, Pritesh Shah, told reporters.

"We have prayed to the High Court to interfere in the matter and to grant the custody of the daughter to Janardan Sharma's family," Shah added.

Earlier, the girl, Nityanandita, had reportedly appeared in a video shared a few days back in which she had said that she was living in the ashram with her consent.

"I have been living in this ashram for the past 6 years and happily living here. I have enjoyed my stay over here since the past 6 years and have voluntarily chosen this path. I am living here as a sanyasi and will share the messages of Swamiji by this path. I do not want to meet anyone of my parents or contact any of them. I am safe here and I wish to continue here as Swamiji and sangha have taken extraordinary care of me," the girl said in the video.