Student alleges sexual harassment by Swaminarayan gurukul sadhu

Vadodara, Aug 31 (UNI) A 15-year-old destitute student of the Chharodi Swaminarayan Gurukul alleged that he was sexually harassed by a gurukul sadhu and the incident forced him to flee from the institute.

The victim, Akash Thakkar, was brought before the local media by a city-based NGO to expose the sadhu, Kanu Bhagat, who is media in-charge of the organisation.

The boy further alleged that several other sadhus of the gurukul were reportedly sexually exploiting the students of the gurukul located on the Ahmedabad-Sarkhej highway.

Akash said he fled to Rajkot on the very night he was called by the priest to his gurukul residence. ''When I went to his house, I found him completely naked but I managed to flee from there as he tried to grab me,'' he alleged while narrating the incident that occurred some 18 months ago.

The boy returned to the city after he failed to earn his livelihood in Rajkot and took the shelter of local social activist Ashok Pawar, who promised to provide him all the necessary legal and financial support to the poor victim and also to take care of his studies.

Akash said when he was only three months old, he was adopted by a Gandhinagar-based couple Rajendra Thakkar and his wife Bharti. After his foster father died of cancer a couple of years ago, he was subjected to inhuman torture and thrown out of their sector-21 residence by Bharti and her brother Mukesh to grab the property.

UNI