CBI files charge sheet against absconding guru in second rape case

The CBI Thursday filed a charge sheet against self-styled spiritual guru Virendra Dev Dixit in a second case relating to the alleged rape of a girl who was drugged and exploited by him in Lucknow, officials said.

Along with 77-year-old Dixit, who had allegedly confined several women at his ashram Ishwariya Adhyatmik Vidyalaya in Rohini here and is now absconding, the agency has also charged his associate Gyaneshwari Mali in the charge sheet filed in a special court.

The agency had filed FIR against him in two cases of rape and a case against unidentified disciples for allegedly obstructing the work of a high court-appointed committee which went to the ashram on December 19, 2017.

The Delhi High Court had on December 20, 2017 directed the CBI to investigate the alleged illegal confinement of girls and women in the Rohini ashram where they were kept in "animal-like" conditions behind metal doors in a "fortress" surrounded by barbed wire.

In its charge sheet, the agency has slapped stringent IPC sections related to repeated rape 376(2)(n) which carry a sentence of at least 10 years and may extend to life imprisonment on both the accused. An additional charge of abetment has been invoked by the CBI against Mali.

Besides, the agency has also charged him for criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement.

"The investigation revealed that the accused (Dixit) allegedly raped the complainant from 2011 to 2015 on various occasions in different branches of Ishwariya Adhyatmik Vidyalaya and his associate (Mali) brought the complainant to Lucknow and allegedly gave her some intoxicated substances mixing them in milk and asked her to go to the accused (where she was allegedly raped)," CBI's spokesperson said.

Dixit has been absconding since cases were registered against him and the agency has not been able to trace him in spite of an Interpol Blue Corner notice and a reward of Rs five lakh on him.

The agency had earlier this month had filed a charge sheet against Dixit for allegedly raping a minor in his ashrams in Rohini and Kampil, Uttar Pradesh in 1999.

In the third matter related to allegedly obstructing the work of a high court- appointed committee which went to the ashram on December 19, 2017, the agency has filed its charge sheet.