NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday apprised the Delhi High Court that it is proceeding with the steps for arresting absconding godman Virendra Dev Dixit, who is facing a sexual exploitation case.
As the status report in the matter filed by the agency before a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan, it was observed that the CBI was making “earnest efforts” to comply with the court’s directions to take action against Dixit who has been absconding for several years.
“He appears to be outside India. We will arrest him soon. We have taken help of Interpol,” counsel for CBI told the bench, also comprising Justice Mini Pushkarna. The high court was hearing a 2017 petition filed by NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment. As per the plea, several minors and women are being illegally confined at the “spiritual university” run by Dixit and the parents of the inmates are not allowed to meet them.
On May 31 , the high court sought a fresh status report from the central probe agency about securing the arrest of Dev. The high court had earlier asked the CBI to trace the founder of the ashram Dixit and directed the agency to probe the alleged illegal confinement of girls and women in the ashram where it was claimed they were kept in “animal- like” conditions behind metal doors in a “fortress” surrounded by barbed wire.
In the early hearing, the court had said another important aspect is that a large number of such ashrams are operating in the country and the CBI is required to find out who is the owner of these ashrams. The agency has not been able to arrest Dixit. However, CBI can investigate further to initiate the process for letter of request to the UK, Nepal and other locations.