The two accused have been booked under IPC section 295 for defiling a place of worship, 506 for criminal intimidation and 504 for insult. (Representational)
Two Jain monks at Pavapuri Jain Tirthdham in Idar town of Sabarkantha district have been booked for defiling a place of worship and criminal intimidation, after video clips of the two allegedly involved in an act of obscenity with a woman emerged.
Complainant Aashit Doshi, one of the trustees of Pavapuri Jain Tirthdham, approached Sabarkantha police with a complaint that the two monks, Rajtilak Sagarji and Kalyan Sagarji, were involved in obscenity with a Surat-based woman inside the premises of the ashram cum temple. He further stated in his FIR that the accused had allegedly formed a sexual relationship with the victim under the guise of “tantra and mantra” for the past one year and accused them of criminally intimidating him, police said.
“We have booked the two accused under IPC section 295 for defiling a place of worship, 506 for criminal intimidation and 504 for insult. The complainant in the case had approached us with videos which we are investigating. If the victim mentioned in the FIR by the complainant approaches us. or any other woman approaches us. claiming that the two accused have forced themselves on her, we will also book a case of rape against them. We are investigating the case as of now,” said Chaitanya Mandlik, Superintendent of Police, Sabarkantha.
According to police sources, the incident dates back to January 3, when the trustees of the temple had found an obscene video of the two monks with a woman. The video was handed over to the family of the victim. According to the FIR, the two monks had tried to criminally intimidate the woman and the trustee to not pursue the case with the police.
“We are trying to get in touch with the woman seen in the video to get her statement in the case,” said a police official at Idar police station.