Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati moves Allahabad HC seeking anticipatory bail in POCSO case

Prayagraj (UP), Feb 24 (PTI) Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati on Tuesday moved the Allahabad High Court seeking anticipatory bail after being booked for alleged sexual harassment of minor children and other offences.

A notice has been sent to the office of the government advocate in this regard, before filing the application in court, sources said.

The FIR was lodged at the Jhunsi police station in Prayagraj against Saraswati and his disciple Mukundanand Brahmachari over allegations of sexual abuse of two persons, including a minor, over the past year.

According to the FIR, the complainants included Ashutosh Brahmachari Maharaj and two other persons – one of them a minor – who alleged sexual abuse by the accused at a gurukul and during religious congregations, including the recently concluded Magh Mela in Prayagraj.

The action on Saturday followed an order passed by the special judge (POCSO Act), Prayagraj, directing that a case be registered on the application moved by Ashutosh Brahmachari and others.

The FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the BNS, officials said.

Besides Saraswati and Mukundanand, the complaint also named two to three unidentified persons.

It has been alleged that the accused, posing as religious preceptors, subjected the minor and another youth to repeated sexual assault on multiple occasions over the past year.

Saraswati recently hit the headlines for his confrontation with the organisers of the Magh Mela in Prayagraj, whom he accused of preventing him from taking a bath on Mauni Amavasya.

Talking to reporters at the Vidya Math in Varanasi, Saraswati said some lawyers had approached him offering assistance, but he had no information on any steps they may have taken.

He also showed a photograph and claimed that a police officer from Prayagraj was at the centre of the “conspiracy” against him.

The image showed the officer cutting a cake with Ashutosh Brahmachari standing next to him.

He also claimed the administration and police began acting against him on January 18, coinciding with Mauni Amavasya.

Despite provisions mandating the immediate registration of an FIR under the POCSO Act, police did not file a case on their own, and instead acted only after a court order, he alleged.

The court order focused more on legal rulings than on evidence, he claimed, hinting that someone was backing Ashutosh Brahmachari.

He also claimed that the officials of the Varanasi Development Authority recently surveyed the Vidya Math, alleging that the “entire system” was being used against him to pressure him to withdraw from a cow protection campaign, which he said he would not do. PTI COR ABN ARI