The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) rescued over 40 girls along with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the Delhi Police from Rohini’s Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya.
The step was taken after the Delhi High Court formed a panel consisting of lawyers and the DCW chief, to inspect the premises of the so-called institute, owned by the Baba Virender Dikshit where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.
“A 13-year-old victim said that she was raped by the Baba. It is high time to take action against such Babas. We were also held hostage when we went there to rescue the victims. Somehow we managed to rescue the girls,” DCW chief Swati Maliwal told the media.
“We also came across lots of medicines stocked up which we are sure were being given to these girls as they seemed to be in a trance when we rescued them”, she added.
The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the CBI to trace the founder of the north Delhi-based ashram where girls were allegedly kept under illegal confinement.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar has asked Virender Dev Dixit, the founder of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya in North Delhi’s Rohini to be present before it on January 4.
The rescued girls, who were sent to the shelter homes, will now be counselled.
The residents of the area alleged that these minors had been “trapped” inside the ashram and were trained to work as sex workers.
“This place has been given the name of a University. Girls from this place were taken to some place in buses and there were trained as a sex labour. This place was a complete fraud and the girls who used to come here were not even allowed to meet their parents,” one of the residents told ANI.
