Security guard Suresh Yadav of Kandivli’s Terapanth Bhavan has been pestered several times with the same question, “Where is Gokul Vihar?”

“I never understood why young boys, casually dressed, with backpacks ask me the same question. They were told by someone that Terapanth Bhavan is a landmark to reach their ashram. I have been working here for two years and have not seen any ashram nearby,” Yadav said.

It was only last month, on June 10, that Yadav became aware of the location of the “ashram”, for all the wrong reasons. Mumbai police raided it and “rescued” 28 persons, 12 of them minors. The ashram, a two-storey bungalow draped with green sheets, was the “spot of exploitation” where youths wanting to become priests were “held captive and harshly treated,” investigators said.

A resident of Gokul Vihar who lives opposite the bungalow recalls, “All those who were rescued were in uniform, with tonsured heads and… orange dhotis. They were all hurriedly ushered into a police van.”

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On June 10 morning, Samta Nagar police were approached by the brother-in-law of one of the minors. The family member tipped off the police about the ‘harsh treatment” inside the “ashram” after receiving a distress call from the minor.

“Phones of those who were rescued had been confiscated. But a minor inside the ashram somehow managed to contact his sister in Surat and told her of the ill-treatment and torture,” said Dilip Yadav, senior police inspector, Samta Nagar.

Subsequently, the main priest, Devendra Dubey, and his disciple Bhagwandas Tiwari, were arrested on charges of exploiting a trafficked person. Several sections of the Juvenile Justice Act were also slapped on them. Investigations reveal that Dubey had links to several renowned ashrams in northern India and had tied up with most of them for sending youths to Mumbai on the pretext of teaching them rituals and scriptures.

“In order to lure the victims, Dubey’s offer was lucrative. He claimed he will pay Rs 1,000 per day to all those who came to his ashram in Mumbai,” an investigator said.

An 18-year-old who was rescued told the police that he belongs to Madhya Pradesh’s Kranti district. “A friend at the ashram in MP told me of the Mumbai officer, it was tempting offer to earn Rs 1,000 per day. My family wanted me to become a priest, it is a good earning to start with. I came to Mumbai on March 3, 2016 but since my arrival to my rescue, nothing I was promised was given. We were made to rise before the sun and sleep on the floor. I was not even allowed to contact my family back home,” the statement of one of the rescued youths reads.

Another youth, who was given the address of the “Kandivali ashram” in Thakur Complex, claims to have been assaulted on his buttocks and palms if he was unable to recite a mantra properly.

“We were reading mantras for customers who never visited the bungalow. We were made to stand on our feet for most of the day, which led to severe swelling. Yeh humara Karam Jeevan tha woh bolte,” the statement reads. Police said there were “identical injuries” on the youths — “whipping marks” on their buttocks and palms.

The youngest of the rescued lot was a 15-year-old boy. In his statement to police, the minor claimed “excess abuse”. “They would give us only two rotis to eat, and very little water so we would not go to the bathroom. They also forced us to drink cow’s urine as part of the rituals. They locked us in the bungalow from outside when we slept. There was cowdung plastered on the floors and walls,” the statement read.

The day the news of the raid broke, a few families travelled to Mumbai to be reunited with their sons. “He was studying a vedic course in one of the campuses of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya in Madhya Pradesh. We were not aware that our son had moved to Mumbai,” a father said in his statement to police.

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