Victim’s mother thought daughter was possessed, invited accused into house

A ‘godman’, who raped a 32-year-old woman from Kharghar by claiming that her private parts were possessed, was arrested at Haridwar railway station on September 13.

The complainant lived with her mother in Kharghar while her father worked in Delhi. Last year, she suffered some health issues, which led to behavioural changes. Owing to this, her mother suspected that she was possessed.

Superstitious mother

“The mother believed in godmen and followed various superstitious rituals. On hearing her worries, a woman known to her suggested that she meet Sushilkumar Rameshchandra Chauhan (43), who was from Uttar Pradesh,” said senior police inspector Arjun Garad from the Anti Human Trafficking Unit. He said Mr. Chauhan came to Kharghar when the mother got in touch with him, and started the rituals with a havan at their residence, during which he asked the victim’s mother to stay outside the house.

After conducting rituals daily for a few days, Mr. Chauhan offered the victim turmeric milk, which was laced with a drug that rendered her unconscious, and raped her. “When she regained consciousness, he told her that he has found evil spirits in her private parts, and would have to perform a sexual act to get rid of them. The complainant told her mother about this, but the mother believed the Mr. Chauhan’s claims. The ‘godman’ would periodically go back to his hometown, only to return after a few days and stay with the victim, in the name of rituals,” Mr. Garad said. Fed up of being raped repeatedly, the complainant finally approached Kharghar police and registered a case on August 30.

During investigations, the police first received a tip-off that the accused was in Assam, but were later told that he had gone to his hometown, Shamli in Uttar Pradesh. On September 10, Mr. Garad and his team went to Shamli and discovered that Mr. Chauhan had left for Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

‘Changing location’

On September 13, the team left for Haridwar. “Technical investigations revealed that he had been changing locations from one ashram to the other. Since the town has pilgrims from across the country, it was a huge challenge for us to identify him in the crowd,” Mr. Garad said. After being unable to find him at any of the ashrams, they finally located him at Haridwar railway station the next morning, and arrested him after verifying his identity.

Mr. Chauhan has been booked under Sections 376 (rape), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.