M A I N   N E W S

Ashram head booked for rape
From Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

SRIGANGANAGAR, April 28 — Swami Anantananda, head of Vivek Ashram, a social organisation running a school for the deaf and dumb, has been booked under Section 376, IPC, allegedly for raping an inmate of the Ashram.

Police sources said Swami Anantananda repeatedly raped the teenaged inmate and later married her off when she was found to be pregnant.

Mr Shiv Kumar, husband of the victim, in a complaint to the police, said he married the girl on November 6, 1999, and on March 18, 2000, she delivered a child.

He said his wife had pointed at Swami Anantananda when shown a group photograph and asked to identify the father of the child.

Mr Ravi Parkash Mehreda, SP, when contacted on the phone, confirmed that Swami Anantananda had been booked for rape and under section 3 of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Atrocities Act. The case was being investigated by a CID crime branch team which reached here from Jaipur today. This was being done on the orders of the Home Minister of Rajasthan.

He said though the case had been registered on April 25, the accused had not yet been arrested as formal investigations were yet to be completed.

Mr Shiv Kumar also alleged that when he approached some persons known to the accused, they tried to hush up the matter. He was threatened that he would be implicated in a criminal case if he continued to persue the case. He said a police officer was working in connivance with the swami.

The SP said the police officer who had threatened Mr Shiv Kumar had been identified and an inquiry was being held into the allegations made by Mr Shiv Kumar.

Sources said the police was trying to find out the truth by conducting DNA tests to determine the paternity of the child.

As the child had died a few days after his birth, the police would exhume the body for the DNA tests.