Self-styled Baba arrested on charges of raping woman

Mathura, Apr 05: In a brutal incident, A tantrik or self-sustained Baba has been sentenced 25-year jail term by a fast track court in Mathura for raping a woman on the pretext of 'healing her stomach ache'. The incident took place at an ashram in Vrindavan.

In July last year, the woman from Hathras had approached the convict, Baba Dwarkadas, for a solution to her constant stomach ache. She had visited his ashram along with her husband and four-year-old daughter. Dwarkadas had then directed her to stay in a room on the second floor saying that the treatment of "evil forces would start at 10 pm", additional district counsel Praveen Kumar Singh said.

He also asked her husband to take a kindled earthen lamp downstairs around the same time and to return only after the lamp was extinguished. Dwarkadas then molested the victim and raped her despite her protests and said it was a part of an exercise to "eliminate the impact of evil forces", Mr Singh said.

She was raped again when her husband was asleep. Dwarkadas told her it was a part of 'nibu exercise' and threatened her to keep quiet to avoid the death of her family. However, once the couple left for Hathras, the woman informed her husband about the entire incident.

"The learned additional district judge of the fast track court Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi has also imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000; and on its non- payment the accused would have to undergo further imprisonment of 27 months," Mr Singh said.

Although the woman had changed her statement during the trial saying that the rape was committed by someone else, the court, on the basis of the evidence produced by police, statement of doctor and the woman's earlier statement, awarded Dwarkadas 20-year rigorous imprisonment under section 376 (pertaining to rape) and four year rigorous imprisonment under section 506 (intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code or the IPC, Mr Singh said.