A religious leader, accused of raping a minor girl in the government circuit house in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, has been arrested from neighbouring Singrauli district on Wednesday evening.
Mahant Sitaram alias Samarth Tripathi, said to be disciple and kin of ex-member of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, Ramvilas Vedanti, was charged with raping a 16-year-old from neighbouring Satna district after a liquor party at the government circuit house on March 28.
Additional Superintendent of Police of Rewa Shivkumar Verma confirmed to THE WEEK that Sitaram had been arrested and brought back to Rewa for interrogation. Also, another accused Vinod Pandey, a history-sheeter who played a key role in luring the minor girl from Satna and locking her up with Sitaram in the room, had already been arrested, Verma said.
Two more accused - a disciple of the ‘Mahant’ and an associate of Pandey who facilitated the crime - are absconding.
The additional SP said that the girl was called to a particular spot in Rewa by Pandey on pretext of getting her help from Sitaram. He sent one of his associates to get her to the circuit house, on a four-wheeler. She was then locked up in the room with Sitaram, while the other three accused left the spot.
The incident has caused a huge furore in the state, with the opposition Congress attacking the government over the fact that the crime happened at the high-security government guest house. Also, Congress leaders circulated photographs of the accused Sitaram with several senior BJP leaders, underlining the fact that these links helped the accused get a room at the circuit house. The room was, however, booked in the name of history-sheeter Pandey.
Leader of opposition Kamal Nath said it was a gang-rape by a ‘Kathavachak’ (religious text narrator) and others, and termed it extremely condemnable. “It is a matter of probe as to how these people were allocated room in the circuit house and how was a liquor party happening there. There should be strict action on the criminals,” he tweeted.
CM Chouhan takes aggressive stance
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who visited Rewa to attend government programmes on Wednesday, took an aggressive stance on the issue, asking the district administration to ‘bulldoze and finish the criminals who cast evil eyes on sisters and daughters’. The chief minister was referring to the currently prevalent action of bulldozing the properties of those accused of heinous crimes in the state. Chouhan called upon the SP and the district collector to make use of the bulldozers to teach the criminals a strong lesson.
