Rape-accused Daati Maharaj’s ashram has no details of girls, no registration

Many irregularities were found during the recent visit of the State Women Commission team to the ashram of Daati Maharaj in Pali, its chief said on Saturday.

Rajasthan Women's Commission chairperson Suman Sharma said that all rules and regulations were being breached in the school and colleges being run by Daati Maharaj in Pali. While the institution's registration has not been renewed for three years, the records of female students, staying there, fail to give any details as to where these girls come from, she said.

Sharma also said that there were no records to ascertain the correct number of girls in the ashram, with only names of hundreds of these girls jotted down in a note book.

"Surprisingly, their fathers' name is different in this copy while the affidavit says something else. Also, the age-related information looks fake," she said.

"When my team went to ashram, we met two people - one of whom introduced himself as principal while the other introduced himself as cashier. When they were asked to produce NOC of the Education Department, they had no clue about it. Nothing was clear from records that from where the orphan girls had come and since when are they staying here. The school, college and hostel had no records," said Sharma.

She also said that the ashram's employees were not cooperative.

"The register they showed had poor/incomplete records of enrolment... There were no clues as to when the girls passed out and in which class and in which year. Some unclear handwritten notes were found which showed different records in terms of their native place, father's name and other such details. We were informed that a few girls have gone to their homes on summer vacation," said Sharma.

"We were informed that there were 151 girls, but our team found 253 girls on the premises. They were tribal girls belonging to Godhra and Udaipur region. They were too scared to talk to our team and gave different versions. At one time, they said they had come to ashram 15 days back, while on the other time, they said it was some 30 days. Their changing versions raised doubts amongst our team members," she added.

Sharma said that subsequently in view of the safety and security of these girls, the Commission had written to the Superintendent of Police requesting him to ensure security of these girls.

A letter was written to the District Collector asking him why no action has been taken to check the records in this ashram, while the Department of Social Justice was asked to to take these girls under their custody.

"We have sent records of our findings to respective departments and are awaiting a reply in next three days after which we will decide our future course of action," Sharma added.

Meanwhile, one of the team members of the commission said that there are chances of human trafficking taking place as no proper records of girls going out and coming into the ashram have been maintained. "However, we will explore this angle later as our present priority is to ensure proper safety of these innocent girls," she added.