A woman filed a police complaint on Thursday night, accusing Kartik Maharaj, a monk of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha at Beldanga in Murshidabad district, of raping her for months.

The police have registered a case. The accused has denied the charges.

Sources said late Thursday evening, the woman who is in her late-thirties, filed a complaint at the Nabagram police station of Murshidabad district, alleging that the Maharaj had raped her severally for around six months.

She said in December 2012, she joined a residential school for tribal students run by the Sangha at Chanak in Murshidabad.

“Since January 2013, Kartik Maharaj used to come to my room, which was on the fifth floor of the school. He got intimate with me, assuring that I can make a good career here and raped me many times till June 2013,” she has written in the complaint.

Because of repeated sexual assault, the woman got pregnant, and in June 2013, she was taken to a private nursing home in Behrampore for an abortion.

“At that time, Kartik Maharaj had begged me for an abortion, citing that he is a monk. I agreed. Soon after, he told me to leave the school and that I would receive my salary at home,” she wrote.

The complainant has also mentioned that she got the salary for the next three months, but then it stopped.

“I communicated with him and was assured that I would be employed somewhere else. In the first week of June this year, I called him again and asked me to reach a location in Behrampore town,” she has written in the complaint.

According to her, as she went there, two persons, suspected to be the associates of the monk, met her. They dragged her into a car and told her that she should not try to make any contact with the monk.

“They threatened me with dire consequences if I made any attempt to contact Kartik Maharaj, dropped me in a place, and drove away,” the woman said in the complaint.

Such a situation prompted her to file a complaint with the police, accusing the monk for raping her, after a gap of over 10 years.

The monk, when contacted, was brief in his reaction.

“The legal section of our Sangha will speak on the issue. We are monks and face several hurdles, including infamy and humiliation. The Sangha runs many schools in the district, but so far, no one has made any complaint against me,” said Kartik Maharaj, who was conferred the prestigious Padmashree award last year for his contribution to social service.

District police officials, when contacted, said they had registered a case.

“A specific case has been registered based on the complaint. Our officers are conducting a probe,” said Raspreet Singh, the additional superintendent of police (Lalbagh) of Murshidabad police district.

Arms recovered

The special task force of Bengal police arrested four persons and seized nine firearms and 158 rounds of live ammunition from Farakka police station area in Murshidabad on Thursday night.

Police said that the arrested were brought to Calcutta and produced in the ACJM court in Bidhannagar on Friday. All the arrested were sent to police custody for seven days.

Acting on a tip off, the STF stopped a car on Netaji Setu in Farakka and seized the firearms and the ammunition which were being brought from Bhagalpur in Bihar.