Andhra Pradesh seer arrested for raping minor orphan girl in captivity in Visakhapatnam ashram

A minor girl living in an Ashram in Visakhapatnam has alleged she was raped multiple times by a seer who, she claimed, chained her and starved her as well. While the seer has been arrested, he claims the allegations are part of a conspiracy to encroach on the ashram land.

Updated: Jun 20, 2023, 5:53 PM

The case has come to the fore after the girl managed to escape from the Ashram earlier this month. As per the details given by the victim, her parents had died at a young age and her relatives had sent her to Gnanananda Ashram in Visakhapatnam two years ago.
According to her, after she was enrolled, Purnananda, the administrator of the ashram, used to make her feed the cows and collect dung during the day. At night, the victim alleged, the Swami would take her to his room and rape her. The sexual assault was repeated a number of times and the girl was allegedly chained and beaten as well.
For almost a year, the victim, as per her statement, was chained in her room and beaten if she resisted. She said that a few spoons of rice mixed with water was all she was given in the name of food. She also claimed that the accused Swami made her go to the bath only once in two weeks and didn’t even allow her to use the toilet, making her relieve herself in a bucket.
The victim girl was able to escape from the ashram with the help of a maid on 13 June. Aboard the Tirumala Express, she told a female passenger about her ordeal who admitted her to a hostel in Kankipadu in Krishna district. The hostel authorities refused to admit the minor until they got a letter from the local police station.
Following it, the victim and the woman who helped her went to Kankipadu police station in Vijayawada. After the police provided the letter, the girl was taken to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), where she described the torture and sexual assault she had faced in the ashram. The CWC members sent the victim girl to Disha Police Station in Vijayawada and registered a POCSO case against Purnananda Swamiji.
Later, the victim was sent to Vijayawada Old Government Hospital for a medical examination. As soon as the case was registered, police in Vishakhapatnam were informed about it following which the Swami was arrested at around midnight on Monday. In his defence, Swami Purnananda said that some people were allegedly trying to encroach on Ashram land and the “conspiracy” was part of it. Pertinently, the Ashram authorities had filed a missing complaint on June 15 about the girl’s disappearance.