Gaya: Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajiv Mishra has said the boys abused by Sanghpriya, the Bodhgaya-based monk arrested for sodomy on Wednesday, and those rescued will be produced before the Child Welfare Board. The board will take the final call on their future accommodation.
Sanghpriya was produced in the court of special Pocso judge K.B. Pandey on Thursday afternoon. The judge remanded him in two weeks' judicial custody. He was sent to Gaya Central Jail. "Medical tests will be conducted on all 32 inmates of the NGO, Prajna Social Welfare Trust, of which Sanghpriya was the founder secretary," said SSP Rajiv Mishra.
Allegations have been levelled that the monk recruited poverty stricken boys from Assam on the promise of education and Buddhist religious training. But they were abused. Fifteen inmates have now been accommodated in Gaya town, while the other 17 are in the NGO building under the care of the specially deputed magistrate and police force.
The district administration has taken over the building.
A video-graphed version of the victims gives a chilling account of the happenings inside the trust building. The elderly boys, according to the videographic version of the inmates, were subjected to more cruel forms of both pornography as well as perverted sex. Some of the boys were even taken to places like Calcutta for the purpose of physical abuse.
The shocked president of Bodh Gaya Nagrik Manch, Suresh Singh, demanded effective scanning of all the NGOs and religious organisations operating in Bodhgaya.
A case under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 377 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, has been registered against the monk. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajiv Mishra confirmed the registration of criminal case against the monk.
The Pocso Act deals with both penetrative and non-penetrative sex and different forms of pornography. It carries a minimum punishment of seven years' rigorous imprisonment, which can be extended to life imprisonment as well. Section 377 carries a minimum punishment of 10 years.
