Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was constantly in news after a sadhvi filed a rape case against him and he was sentenced 20 years of imprisonment. Ever since, people have been looking at the saint community with doubt and their suspicion has grown stronger after a Jain Muni allegedly raped a 19-yr girl.
Jain Muni raped 19-yr girl & arrested:
The shameful incident took place in Surat where a Jain Muni of 45 named Shantisagar Maharaj has been taken into custody after he sexually assaulted a 19-yr girl. This all happened when she and her parents came to Shantisagar Maharaj for his blessings.
The girl and her family hails from Madhya Pradesh but presently they are staying in Vadodara and in March this year only, they became the followers of Acharya Shantisagar of the Mahavir Digambar Jain Mandir.
Rape confirmed by medical examination:
As per police sources, the medical test of the girl has confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted. Here’s what a police officer told,
“On October 1, the girl, her brother and parents had gone to seek his blessings. The Acharya allegedly convinced them to stay back for the chanting of mantras. Then he allegedly took the girl to another room, on pretext of performing puja and raped her.”
The victim was afraid to tell anyone about the rape but later on, she told about it to her parents and then FIR was filed against the Jain Muni.
Acharya’s followers gathered together:
As people got to know about FIR, they started gathering at the Athwa lines police station where Acharya was taken. However, Acharya took the vow of silence just after the news of FIR started spreading in the city. Satish Sharma, the police commissioner of Surat, said,
“We have filed an FIR based on the girl’s complaint. The medical report confirms the girl was raped.”
Surat Zone 4 DCP Vidhi Chaudhari stated,
“We have discovered evidence that the girl was raped and based on that, we will be investigating the Acharya.”
A plan to defame the saint:
Advocate R G Shah, the leader of Shakal Digambar Jain Samaj, said,
“The complaint states the incident took place between 9.30 and 10.30 pm. But the Muni doesn’t entertain visitors after 8.30pm. Also, why did the complainant stay quiet for all these days? This might be a ploy to defame the Muni.”
We are sorry to say that in present conditions, it has become very difficult to believe the saints and we sincerely hope that the truth prevails and culprit should be punished.
