Terming it a “bizarre case of blind faith” and an “unfortunate reality” where people approach babas/ tantrics to find solutions to their problems, the Bombay High COurt has upheld life sentence of one such Bangali Baba who sexually exploited seven young girls, including six minor girls and one maid between the period 2004-05 and 2010.
The HC, while upholding the life sentence of a Bangali baba, for sexually exploiting seven girls under the pretext that they would not give birth to mentally challenged boys, said the accused does not "deserve any leniency." In fact, the court has said that for him, the life sentence “shall be till the remainder of his life."
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Bangali Baba, 45, challenging the order of the special court sentencing him to life in prison on April 7, 2016. The HC also upheld the Rs80,000 fine imposed on him.
Court's observations
“It is an unfortunate reality of our times, that people, at times knock on the doors of so called tantrics/ babas, for a solution to their problems… and (they) take advantage of the vulnerability and blind faith... not only exploit their vulnerability, by extracting money from them, but also many a times, sexually assault the victims.. ,” a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Manjusha Deshpande said.
The bench added: “This is one such bizarre case of blind faith. It is extremely unfortunate that 7 young girls, 6 minors and 1 maid were sexually exploited by the appellant, as the 6 minor girls’ mothers feared that the girls would beget intellectually challenged boys.”
“Gross, and the girls too many”
The facts are “gross, and the girls too many”, and as such the sentence must be commensurate with the acts committed, the judges underline.
The order was dictated in open court between January 16 to 22, but the order copy was made available on Saturday.
According to the prosecution, at the pretext of curing the girls, the accused exploited the minor girls and duped their parents of Rs1.30 crore. The FIR was lodged in 2010 and in 2016.
The four complainants were sister who had normal daughters but had differently abled sons. They claimed that they had the problem from their maternal side and suspected that their daughters too would give birth to sons, who would be differently abled. Hence they took the girls to Bangali Baba.
The accused claimed that he was falsely implicated since the complainant sisters had a family dispute. He claimed that the husband of one of the complainants suspected that he had an affair with his wife.
The police managed to recover Rs90,30,000, of the Rs1.3 crore, from the accused. The court has directed the trial court to disburse the amount to the girls.
The ornaments, gold chain, gold haar, necklace of yellow metal studded with diamonds, diamond ring, recovered from the accused has to be returned to the owner.
