NEW DELHI: Women members of the Aam Aadmi Party today met Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to demand the immediate arrest of "spiritual leader" Virender Dev Dixit, in whose centers minor girls were allegedly kept confined.
The delegation included AAP women wing president Richa Pandey Mishra and MLA Rakhi Birla.
On Thursday, raids were conducted at Dixit's Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya at Rohini in the national capital, where women and girls were allegedly kept confined like "animals in a cage" Pandey alleged Dixit had been running the ashram with the help of police.
"Girls were illegally confined and exploited in the name of spirituality. All these things were happening under the nose of police," she said.
The AAP women wing president said they met Baijal and urged him to direct the Delhi Police to arrest Dixit and rescue women and girls confined in such places in other parts of the national capital.
The Delhi Commission for Women along with a police contingent raided two centres of Dixit in Rohini and Dwarka and rescued over 40 girls who were allegedly confined there.
The matter had come to light after a PIL was filed by an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, in the Delhi High Court. The NGO had informed the court that several girls and women were allegedly being illegally confined there.
Subsequently, the high court had set up a committee, comprising lawyers and DCW chief Swati Maliwal, to inspect the premises of the institute and had also directed the CBI to probe the matter.