Date:03/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/03/stories/2006120302461200.htm

National

Ashram owner sent to jail

3 girls were allegedly sexually abused

Ghaziabad: A local court on Saturday remanded to 14 days' judicial custody the owner of Swami Balnath Ashram orphanage for alleged sexual exploitation of girls as authorities finished the magisterial probe. The probe report will be presented in the Supreme Court on Monday.

A five-member National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team visited Swami Balnath Ashram, recorded statements and would submit its report to the apex court on Monday.

Balnath was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Humanshu Bhatnagar amid tight security and was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days as the media waited outside.

He was "challaned" under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty of woman), 376 (rape) and 504 (intentional insult) of the IPC, Senior Superintendent of Police Piyush Mordia said.

Several supporters of the "baba" raised slogans against the National Commission for Women and a TV news channel that aired footage of the sting operation carried out along with the NGOs Stop and Shakti Vahini while he was taken to the Dasna District Jail.

Former IPS officer S.P. Rao, heading the NHRC team, met Balnath at Sihani Gate police station before he was produced before the CJM's court.

Three girls of the orphanage, over 10 years of age, alleged that they were sexually exploited by Balnath, after which the NGOs and the National Commission for Women decided to probe the matter.

The 47 girls, six of whom are over 18, five above 15 and the rest over 10 have been medically examined. Three were found to have been sexually abused, sources said.

District Magistrate M.K.S. Sundaram said the magisterial probe by Deputy Collectors Smita Singh and Kanchan Saran and IT Magistrate G.D. Yadav was complete and would be produced before the Supreme Court on Monday on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Government.

He has ordered the "ashram" premises sealed and said "no one will be allowed inside as its inmates have been shifted to homes in Meerut and Mathura."

PTI