Godman running trafficking racket: DCW after rescuing 2 girls from Delhi ashram

New Delhi: Two girls were on Tuesday rescued from illegal confinement at an ashram run by spiritual leader Virender Dev Dixit in Karawal Nagar in a joint operation by the police and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), officials said.

Some literature was also confiscated from the ashram where the girls were confined, as crackdown continued on the controversial spiritual leader's premises, they said.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal along with Ajay Verma, advocate appointed as amicus curae by the Delhi High Court, had visited the centre at Karawal Nagar on Monday. They found six women, including the two minors, living in confinement there.

Maliwal, who visited another centre run by Dixit at Nangloi on Monday, demanded a CBI probe into what she suspected was a human trafficking racket being run by him.

"It appears that Baba Virender Dev Dixit is running a human trafficking racket. The CBI should urgently and simultaneously conduct raids at all ashrams of Dixit across India and close them down. By delaying the raids, he is getting time to cover up his action," she had said.

On December 23, the DCW along with the Delhi Police raided Dixit's ashram in Mohan garden area of Uttam Nagar and found 25 women confined there.

The issue had come to light due to a PIL filed by an NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment before the Delhi High Court.

The NGO had informed the court that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined there.