Mother, daughter lodge complaint against Sarathi Baba

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Aug 20:

A woman and her daughter hailing from Barimul village in Odisha’s Kendrapara district today lodged a complaint with the Crime Branch at its headquarters here accusing the self-proclaimed god man Srimad Sarathi Dev alias Santosh Kumar Raula of exploiting them both sexually and physically apart from defrauding them of their gold ornaments and money.

Both claimed that they had been working at the Sarathi Ashram at Barimul village.

“We lodged a complaint in writing on whatever had happened to us. We mentioned in our complaint that the Baba had taken Rs 1.15 lakh from us. He has also taken away our gold ornaments, which include gold bangles, gold chain and gold ear rings. We have complained about the Baba outraging our modesty and shooting our objectionable photographs. We mentioned about being threatened by Sarat Sir to keep our mouth shut about the happenings at the ashram. We have been working there for about 15 years,” the daughter, with her face covered, told reporters outside the Crime Branch headquarters while her mother stood alongside her.

On being asked by reporters how the Baba took money from them, she said: “The Baba had taken the money to settle a land dispute case of ours. We had apprised him about the case. He had taken the money saying he will handle the case through a lawyer.”

“We were threatened with our lives whenever we said that we would disclose the goings on at the ashram. The Baba threatened us with our lives by sending Sarat Sir to our home,” said the daughter.

With today’s complaint, three women have filed complaints against the self-styled god man.

The first was the medico who had accompanied the Baba to Hyderabad and the second was the woman from Nikirei village, who had said she was asked by her husband and accomplices of Srimad Sarathi to join the Baba in his bedroom to seek his blessings after taking bath at the ashram’s bathroom which she didn’t.