Jamshedpur: Police have detained a 54-year-old monk of Sonari-based Bharat Sevashram Sangha (BSS) at the Sonari police station late last night after he was alleged to have made a rape attempt on a minor girl at the BSS premises on Tuesday night.
According to information, the victim, a resident of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh had come here along with her brother and sister-in-law for the treatment of cancer of two of her kin at the Tata Meherbai Memorial Hospital since the past one month.
Initially, the victim along with her brother and sister-in-law had stayed at the BSS premises by taking a room for 10 days.
OC, Sonari police station, Naresh Prasad Sinha said they had received a complaint from the victim late last night and have started investigation.
“We immediately informed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) as it was related a 15-year-old girl. After the CWC will finish its investigation, we will register a case in connection to the matter,” said Sinha.
CWC chairperson, East Singhbhum, Pushpa Tirkey confirmed to have sent the victim today for medical examination and a statement before a judicial magistrate under Section of 164 of the CrPC.
“We came into action immediately and spoke to the victim as well as the accused- Sujit Mahraj. The accused had tried to rape her in his room on the BSS premises by touching her private parts. Once the medical examination report comes and the statement before the judicial magistrate is made, we will request the police to frame charges against the monk accordingly,” said the CWC chairperson.
According to Tirkey, the victim’s seven-year-old niece and eight-year-old nephew are cancer patients and are undergoing treatment at the Tata Meherbai Memorial Hospital, where as she herself was staying with her brother and sister-in-law at the rented house in Adarshnagar.
“As per our initial probe, the victim had quarreled with her sister-in-law and had left her residence in anger. On seeing her alone, the monk called her inside his room where he had played with her body for three hours. The sister-in-law started searching for her and considering that she might have gone to the BSS she searched around the places inside the sprawling BSS premises. Incidentally, she came across the monk and asked about the victim. The monk said she was in the bathroom of his room,” said CWC chairperson pointed out.
Tirkey said it was an attached bathroom on the ground floor of the four-storeyed BSS building. She said the sister-in-law on entering into the bathroom found the victim shocked and crying.
