A nephew of transcendental meditation guru, the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police for the alleged rape of a woman ,who had been employed in one of the schools run by the Maharishi Vidya Mandir group headed by the accused.
The police action followed a complaint lodged by the victim with the State Women’s Commission in March stating that Girish Chandra Verma had repeatedly raped her. According to the woman, who had been a member of the teaching staff at one of the schools run by the trust in Ratanpur here, Verma also shot objectionable videos of her. After she lodged the complaint, the school sacked her.
Later, the matter was transferred to the state police. After refusing to appear before the police for nine months, Verma finally turned up before the authorities on Friday to record his statement. But it was only after the state police issued two notices to Verma that he chose to cooperate with the probe. “However, we were not satisfied with what he said and there were many discrepancies in what he was saying due to which he was arrested,” a police officer said.
According to officials, the accused was arrested from his sprawling 10 acre ashram on the city outskirts. “After the initial investigation and statement of the victim, Verma was arrested from his ashram in Chhan village under Section 376 (rape) and 506 (threat to kill) of IPC. We will be seeking his remand from the court,” SP (City) Jahangirabad, Salim Khan said.
Meanwhile, in a lengthy statement, Verma strongly refuted the charges levelled by the complainant and termed it a conspiracy by his enemies. Verma is seen as one of the heirs to the nearly`60,000 crore fortune of the Yogi, whose disciples included high-profile names like the legendary ‘Beatles’ . Following the Yogi’s demise in 2008, Verma has been managing all the educational trusts set up under the iconic spiritualist. And as many as 148 schools spread across 16 states are functioning under the trusts managed by Verma, officials said.