New Delhi: The AAP on Friday alleged that BJP leaders and Delhi Police were involved in the running of an ashram here where minor girls and women were reported to have been kept in illegal confinement in the name of religious preaching.
The party demanded the immediate arrest of Virender Dev Dikshit, accused of exploiting women at his ashram Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya located in north Delhi’s Rohini.
“Even after receiving several complaints against the ashram, the police that comes under the control of the Centre didn’t take any action. The police and BJP leaders were definitely involved in this,” Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh told the media.
He said strict action should be taken against Dikshit and others involved in the crime. “Nobody should be spared.”
AAP legislator Alka Lamba said: “We have heard that 200 of such similar ashrams are running across the country. It is shameful that minor girls are being exploited. The citizens wish to know who all are associated with this business?”
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said it had “no confidence in police” for not taking any action on about 10 FIRs lodged against the ashram and its members, and ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into the ashram.
The court directed the CBI to seize all records relating to FIRs lodged and entries in the “daily diary” maintained by police in connection with alleged rape and suicides of women there.
AAP MLA Richa Pandey, President of the party’s women’s wing Mahila Shakti, said: “It is shameful that the police was unable to control this criminal activity.
“The same thing happened in Narela as well… and now in Rohini that the DCW came to rescue innocent women but the police did not.”
Delhi Commission of Women chief Swati Maliwal on Thursday said that the commission rescued 41 minor girls from the ashram with the Child Welfare Committee and police.
IANS