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Ashu Maharaj arrested by Delhi Police for rape of woman, minor daughter

According to a senior official in the crime branch, sufficient evidence has been uncovered by the police against Ashu Maharaj

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The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has arrested self-styled godman Ashu Maharaj on Friday, and booked him for rape, while his son was also detained for interrogation.

According to a senior official in the crime branch, sufficient evidence has been uncovered by the police against Ashu Maharaj. Further investigations are still underway.

According to the police, a woman had alleged that Ashu Maharaj raped her and her minor daughter at his Haus Khas ashram in New Delhi. The police is interrogating Ashu and his son about the allegations leveled by the woman.

The woman had claimed that Ashu and his son first raped her several times between 2008 and 2013, after which he asked her to bring her minor daughter to him, and raped her too.

The woman said that in 2013, she visited him at his ashram in New Delhi's Rohini area, where he and an associate sexually assaulted her. She said Ashu's manager, Ravi Shankar, gave her water that was laced with sedatives, upon drinking which she lost consciousness.

When she woke up, she said she threatened to narrate her ordeal to everybody, but the accused said he would eliminate her entire family if she did so.

"He kept threatening me and exploiting me. Not just him, but his friends as well. In 2016, on one occasion, his son Samar and the latter's friend Saurabh — who are builders by profession — also assaulted me. I had informed the same to Guruji and he responded by saying, 'If I am eating (referring to the woman), my son will also eat,'" said the woman in her complaint.

In 2017, Samar then told her to bring along her daughter as well. She again complained to Guruji, who told her that she had been their slave and her daughter would also be one. On one occasion, he even thrashed her and asked her to get her daughter along. "He called me to the Hauz Khas Ashram and I went there along with my daughter. He moved his hands on my daughter's cheeks, lips and felt her. I went to speak to him later, but he threw me out of the Ashram and left in the car," added the woman in her complaint.

The woman said she had known the Guruji since 2008, when her daughter had developed a stomach ache. The accused had then undressed the girl and massaged her, thereby providing her with relief.

The police has registered a case under section 376D (gang-rape), 354 (sexual harassment) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and POCSO Act.

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