PATNA: The head monk of a Buddhist meditation centre in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing 15 child monks aged between six and 12 hailing from Assam, police said on Thursday.
Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy, who headed Prasanna Jyoti Buddhist Novice School and Meditation Centre at Mastpura village under Bodh Gaya police station, was produced before the chief judicial magistrate’s court and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
“The FIR against him has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act. The victims are being medically examined. Their statements will be recorded by a magistrate on Friday,” said Bodh Gaya DSP Raman Chaudhary.
The matter came to light after the parents of some child monks from Assam’s Karbi Anglong district came to Bodh Gaya upon receiving complaints from them about physical and sexual abuse by the head monk. The guardians, after hearing the harrowing details of the abuse from the children, approached police.
Coming just two months after the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district came to light, this incident sparked outrage across Bihar. Gaya SP Rajeev Mishra said police are looking at every aspect of the case.
All the 15 children and their parents have been placed under police security at Assam Bhawan near the Vishnupad shrine in Bodh Gaya. The other 17 children who studied at the meditation centre are kept there under police security, said officials.
The meditation centre was run by an NGO named Prajanna Social Welfare Trust. The children had been taking Buddhist meditation lessons at the institute for about a year. The accused allegedly had been asking them to come into his bedroom and sexually abusing them. Those who protested used to be thrashed, the victims told police.
“When the shocked guardians of the 15 young monks demanded an explanation from Bhante Shanghpriya Sujoy, he expelled the child monks citing gross indiscipline. This led to the guardians approach police,” said an official.