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Journalism of Courage
LUCKNOW, JAN 29: Sant Gyaneshwar is an unusual saint. He is on the run, wanted in connection with the January 21 murder of former Congress MLA Indrabhad Singh in Sultanpur. The police have raided his ashram and recovered documents revealing his links with smugglers and obscene material that locals say points to immoral activities.
But Sant Gyaneshwar isn’t one of a kind in Ayodhya. A holy town that has its share of sadhus and ashrams, the police say there are many more like him who are giving religion a bad name. In Ayodhya, there are at least 86 sadhus and mahants with criminal records. The Ramjanmabhoomi police station has criminal records of eight such corrupt sadhus, while the Ayodhya police station lists 78 sadhus as criminals. While some have been booked under the Gangster Act, Arms Act and UP Goonda Act, many others have been charged with murder, rioting and attempt to murder.
For instance, Baba Prahalad Das, who lives in the famous Hanuman Garhi temple, is an accused in two murder and fourattempt-to-murder cases. He has had the Gangster and Goonda acts slapped on him and has been charged thrice for rioting. Baba Jagdish Das has six criminal cases pending against him, while Swami Upendra Das of Nishad Temple has seven.
Another sant in saffron, Baba Virendra, has fled his Farrukhabad ashram when the police zeroed in on him after some of his women disciples complained that he sexually exploited them. “For criminals, Ayodhya is a very safe sanctuary,” says B N Tiwari in charge of the cantonment police station in Faizabad. “Commit a crime in any State, take refuge in any of several ashrams here and then become a mahant. You are then saved from police action,” he says.
As for Sultanpur’s Swami Gyaneshwar — alias Baba Alak Das who the police say is on the run along with four of women “disciples”– he started operations by setting up an ashram in 1990 by grabbing villagers’ land. Today, he is said to have ashrams in Hardwar, Agra, Varansi, Lucknow, Delhi, Mumbai and even USA andNepal.
In fact, Swami Gyaneshwar’s history sheet is a long one. The first murder case against him was registered in 1983 in connection with the killing of then District Magistrate of Gopalganj, M P N Sharma, who is said to have incurred his wrath for having raided his Bihar ashram from where more than 30 girls were rescued.
But it is baffling the way the police seem to turn a blind eye even when cases are registered and it is an open secret that some of these so called men of religion aren’t saints after all. And apart from admitting helplessness, there is little the police can say.
“This is true that no campaign has been initiated against sadhus having criminal background. We can take action only when we can be sure. But I do not deny that a specialised campaign should be launched,” IG (crime) J S Pandey told The Indian Express.
He of course cites the case of a Baba in Faizabad district whom they managed to arrest after he and three of his followers killed four persons in a land dispute. But thenthat is one arrest in a State which seems to have a host of fake sadhus running shady ashrams.
