10 years in hiding: Rohini ashram’s self-styled godman, accused of rape, found dead

Cutting through a narrow alleyway in Rohini Sector 5, the eyes fall upon a decrepit and almost hideous building towering over the locality. Moss creeps across the façade, obscuring lettering that once read Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya. The structure juts out like a sore thumb within the residential area.

Once central to a harrowing case that cut a devastating gash across the country, the building now serves mostly as a sad reminder of its past. While one self-proclaimed godman, Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati, has gone into hiding following allegations of sexual abuse at a private institute, another remains at large — and has been for more than a decade.

Saraswati faces five cases, including charges of sexual harassment, fraud and forgery. Virendra Dev Dixit, lived on till the age of 82, according to the CBI, while the agency failing to apprehend him during his lifetime. His death was confirmed on September 30, with the investigative agency informing a special court about the development.

The forgotten Rohini ashram case

In 2018, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 59 female inmates of the Rohini-based Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya. They were accused of rioting, unlawful assembly, obstructing public servants and confining a court-appointed committee during an inspection in December 2017.

The Delhi High Court had set up the committee after an NGO alleged minors were being unlawfully confined at the premises. When the team visited, they were obstructed and confined, prompting Delhi Police to register an FIR. The case was later transferred to the CBI, along with three additional rape cases naming Dixit as the prime accused.

According to the chargesheet, standing counsel Nandita Rao and members of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) arrived at the ashram in Vijay Vihar on December 19, 2017. They knocked on the gate but were made to wait 40 minutes before a small door opened at 7 PM. A group of female inmates gathered to prevent them from entering.

The chargesheet said the team reached the upper floor and recovered documents, but faced obstruction. It recorded that the inmates protested and argued with the Deputy Commissioner of Police. One woman led a mob and locked the gate from the other side, leaving the DCP, ACP, SHO and DCW chairperson unlawfully confined and unable to proceed beyond the first floor.

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What is the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya?

The Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya (AVV) is an offshoot of the Mount Abu-based Brahma Kumaris movement. Dixit claimed to be the true medium of its founder Lekhraj Brahma, with his followers identifying as the “Advance Party” or Prajapita Brahma Kumaris (PBKs).

The AVV website still describes Dixit as a “poor Brahmin” undertaking the “task of establishing the Golden Age.”

Dixit began the ashram in 1984 with his child bride Kamla Devi and eventually gathered over 50,000 followers, setting up AVV centres across Indian cities. But controversy soon followed. In 1998, two girls from the Kampila ashram accused him of rape. The court later dismissed the cases when the complainants turned hostile.

In 2017, after neighbours raised concerns, the DCW inspected AVV ashrams in Vijay Vihar, Nangloi, Karawal Nagar and Mohan Gardens.

Today, outsiders are only allowed into the Rohini ashram’s lobby. Volunteer Pardeep claimed the restrictions protect residents from false allegations. “Every case filed against us is fake and fabricated. We have been provided with a clean chit in all of the cases… The CBI keeps coming to harass us,” he said.

But the unresolved cases of sexual assault and confinement remain stuck in legal limbo because Dixit is absconding. In 2019, authorities announced a Rs 5 lakh reward for information on his whereabouts, but he was never found.

In August last year, the Delhi High Court, responding to concerns that some inmates may be minors, directed the CBI to verify their ages.

The hidden women of Rohini cult

Reports continue to suggest women and girls are unlawfully confined in the ashram. Earlier in August, 2024, the Delhi High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela directed the CBI to verify inmates’ ages and submit a fresh report.

The amicus curiae’s inspection report also raised questions about the ashram’s funding. Families have filed petitions in court — one mother alleging her daughter was “under the influence of certain individuals,” and an elderly couple claiming their “highly educated daughter” had been misled into joining and was “harbouring overvalued ideas.”

The court earlier noted serious rape allegations against Dixit and asked the CBI for updates. The agency’s counsel said two FIRs had been filed against him and assured the bench all efforts were being made to arrest him.

In 2017, the NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment filed a plea alleging minors were being held unlawfully at Dixit’s “spiritual university” and barred from meeting parents. The CBI reported raids on his farmhouses and ashrams, the freezing of his accounts in 2023, and special teams created to locate him.

Inside, women are still restricted. None may leave without a volunteer. Residents are confined to the upper floors, away from the lobby. Volunteer Hargovind explained that mothers and daughters serve a higher purpose during judgement day and were therefore “kept upstairs.”

Among the inmates are minors and adults, many of them runaways.

In an affidavit submitted on January 29, survivor Srivanitha said women in the AVV live under strict control. She stated that they must submit affidavits declaring themselves virgins or “born-again virgins.” They are prohibited from marrying, speaking to men, or even conversing among themselves beyond household chores. “Only women are required to surrender to the ashram. Men are free to come and go as they please,” she noted.

Their daily routine begins at 2 AM with ablutions and bathing. They had to prepare breakfast for Dixit and senior women before undertaking cleaning duties. Women are divided into groups for tasks such as cooking or scrubbing toilets.

Despite the CBI’s oversight, the ashram continues in violation of court directions.

Living on the edge

On January 30, 2024, the Supreme Court barred the ashram from using the term Vishwa Vidyalaya, upholding a 2018 Delhi High Court ruling. The bench noted that counsel for AVV argued the word was integral to followers’ beliefs and clarified that the group provided only spiritual, not formal, education. Referring to the UGC Act, 1956, the court held that no unauthorised institution may use the word “University” in its name and warned that violations would attract penalties.

Yet the building’s façade still bears the name.

Earlier, in October 2022, the Delhi High Court directed the ashram to register under the Women and Children’s Institutions (Licensing) Act, 1956. The management has not done so. “We do not need donations, why should we get registered? The matas and didis are happy here,” said Pardeep.

This case remains unresolved, with no convictions in sight.

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Death in the family

On September 22, Hradesh Pandey, Dixit’s nephew and a resident of Dubey Mohalla in Shamsabad, lodged an FIR at Kampil police station. He accused 14 ashram residents of kidnapping and murdering Dixit on November 8, 2022, and disposing of his body.

According to Pandey, Dixit, originally from Nehru Nagar in Kampil, had founded the Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya in 1983–84. Over decades, it expanded to cities across India and abroad, attracting thousands of followers and amassing significant property.

Pandey said Dixit last met trusted aides — Vidyaa, Kakuli, Pushpa, Manjari, Neelam Disilva, Deepak Disilva and others — at the Kampil ashram in 2016. By 2016–17, several cases against him were already under CBI investigation. Pandey said he urged these aides to help Dixit surrender, but they dismissed his concerns, assuring him he was safe.

In January and May 2023, Pandey visited ashrams in Kampil, Delhi and Farrukhabad, demanding to meet Dixit, but was denied each time.

Suspecting abduction and murder, he approached the Superintendent of Police. A preliminary probe by the then Kaimarganj Circle Officer found that Chandralekha, a resident of Hyderabad, claimed Dixit had died of illness at her home. The investigation has since been transferred to Bobbapalli police station in Telangana. Kampil SHO Kapil Chaudhary confirmed the FIR had been filed on the SP’s orders, with the probe to continue in Telangana.

After just a few days short of a week, the CBI confirmed Dixit’s death, on September 30, stating that he had died in 2023, itself.