BHOPAL: An ashram in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh has come under police scanner after a deaf and mute young woman residing there delivered a child recently.
A rape case has been registered against unidentified persons by Dewas police.
DNA tests of six middle-aged men residing at the ashram, including its 60-year-old head, are being conducted to ascertain who could be behind the sexual exploitation of the 22-year-old woman.
The district administration and police have shifted six more women from the same ashram (four being physically or mentally challenged) to the government shelter home.
According to district collector Chandramauli Shukla, what has happened with the young woman at kabir Ashram suggests she has been sexually abused, either at the ashram or outside.
“The police have already registered a case and multiple teams have been formed to probe the matter from all angles,” Shukla added.
Dewas DSP Shiv Dayal said medical examination of the other six women shifted from the ashram have been conducted, but nothing incriminating has been found in their reports.
The makeshift ashram on the Bhopal-Indore highway housed physically and mentally challenged women, mostly abandoned by their families.
According to ashram sources, the deaf and mute woman was left at the ashram by her parents when she was just 6 years old.