India News | Making Efforts to Trace Self-styled Preacher Virender Dev Dixit: CBI Assures Delhi HC
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The CBI Thursday assured the Delhi High Court that all efforts are being made to ascertain the whereabouts of self-styled spiritual preacher Virender Dev Dixit who is facing rape cases and has been absconding for several years.
New Delhi, Nov 10 (PTI) The CBI Thursday assured the Delhi High Court that all efforts are being made to ascertain the whereabouts of self-styled spiritual preacher Virender Dev Dixit who is facing rape cases and has been absconding for several years.
The agency said raids have been carried out at Dixit's farm houses and ashrams and special teams have been constituted to arrest him.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the CBI to file within four weeks a fresh status report giving details of the steps taken by it to locate Dixit.
The CBI, in its status report filed on November 7, said various video clips pertaining to the accused available on YouTube are being looked into to trace the location or the persons who have uploaded them.
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"All efforts are being made to ascertain the whereabouts of accused Virender Dev Dixit by deploying various sources/ informers, by verifying the information received about his presence, by mounting surveillance at suspected places and by CDR analysis of the mobile numbers of his close associates as well as sending teams at various locations including his possible hideouts and mounting surveillance," the report said.
The CBI, which said that there is a possibility that Dixit might have fled the country, added that a reward of Rs 5 lakh has also been announced for giving any information regarding Dixit and his name has been sent to the fugitive cell of CBI to trace his present location.
In 2017, NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment, represented by lawyer Sravan Kumar, had moved the high court alleging that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined at the "spiritual university" and were not allowed to meet their parents.
The high court had then asked the CBI to trace the founder of the ashram Dixit and directed the agency to probe the alleged illegal confinement of girls and women in the ashram where it was claimed they were kept in "animal-like" conditions behind metal doors in a "fortress" surrounded by barbed wire.
During the hearing, the petitioner's counsel said if the CBI is able to locate the source of videos which have been uploaded on YouTube, they may be of some help.
The bench asked the CBI to find out the URLs from where the videos have been uploaded.
The high court had earlier sought assistance from retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi on the matter concerning the welfare of women living in the ashram founded by Dixit in Rohini here.
The court had earlier constituted a committee under her supervision to monitor the functioning of the ashram -- Adhyatmik Vidhyalaya, Rohini.
It had also set up a committee, comprising lawyers and Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, to inspect the premises of the institute.
The committee, comprising lawyers Ajay Verma and Nandita Rao, had then given a report detailing the "horrible" living conditions of the over 100 girls and women who were housed in "animal-like conditions with no privacy even for bathing."
Earlier this year, the court had asked the ashram to show cause as to why it should not be taken over by the Delhi government and said it was difficult to accept that the inmates were living there of their free will.
It had also said that while it cannot force the women living in the ashram under "shocking" conditions to live with their parents, no institution has the licence to conduct its affairs in a manner that violates fundamental rights of the inmates.
In April, it had constituted a committee under the supervision of the retired IPS officer to monitor the welfare and protection of rights of women living there while stating that the institution shall be free to pursue its religious and spiritual practices and the committee shall ensure that no woman inmate or child, if any, in the ashram is subjected to a treatment which is in breach of their fundamental or legal rights.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)