Woman accuses Padma Shri awardee monk Kartik Maharaj of rape, forced abortion

Close on the heels of the rape of a law student on a college campus in Kolkata, another sexual assault case has rocked West Bengal with a woman alleging that Kartik Maharaj of Bharat Sevashram Sangha had raped her multiple times since 2013 after promising her a job.

 

The monk, who is associated with Bharat Sevashram Sangha's Beldanga unit in Murshidabad district, is also accused by the woman of threatening her and forcing her to undergo an abortion.

 

Kartik Maharaj, a Padma Shri awardee, has denied the allegations, terming them as part of a conspiracy to "malign his name and fame".

 

According to reports, the woman in her complaint alleged that she met the monk in his ashram in 2012 after he promised her a job at Chanak Adivasi Abasik Balika Vidyalaya an institution run by the ashram.

 

The woman said she was accommodated in the school hostel in January 2013, but the monk would take her to a room on the fifth floor of the building and rape her.

 

She further alleged that in June 2013 she was forced to undergo abortion at a private hospital in Barhampore after she got pregnant. She was allegedly asked to vacate the hostel and was promised that she would get a monthly salary at home, reported Times of India.

 

The complainant said the payments stopped though she continued to visit the ashram till 2019.

 

"I telephoned the Maharaj on June 12 and he told me to wait near the minority office the next evening. Two persons took me on a four-wheeler promising that they will take me to Maharaj and but going some distance they pushed me from the SUV, and warned me not try to contact him anymore,” she was quoted as saying in her complaint.

 

The monk dismissed the allegations as a conspiracy. "Time will reveal everything. This is a conspiracy against me to malign my name and fame. There are so many women employed in our ashram and many female disciples. Ask them; everyone will say we respect women like our mothers. You can even contact the complainant's father or family members,” he said.

India