From hospital help to godman, 33-year-old arrested for rape
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New Delhi: Former hospital help Vinod Kashyap who ran an ashram in Dwarka has been arrested for rape.
The 33-year-old Vinod Kashyap catapulted into a spiritual guru with about 400 followers after he was ‘blessed by god’, The Indian Express reported.
He was previously a help at a near hospital earning about Rs 25,000 a month when he quit it to open an ashram.
He claimed to have healed personal and health problems of his ‘distressed’ followers with the blessing of god.
Kashyap was arrested on Tuesday after he was accused of sexually assaulting several of his devotees.
He allegedly blackmailed them into remaining silent about the assault, according to the report.
On Saturdays devotees came to his 900 sqft house that was his ashram, where he held darbar sitting on a platform and his devotees on the rug.
A camera person used to be in one corner of the room while another one let in devotees at the entrance, and a third one distributed prasad.
Kashyap ran a YouTube channel catering more than 900 videos to his 43.5k followers.
The godman was arrested for two cases of sexual assault filed by two women devotees, according to DCP (Dwarka) Harsha Vardhan.
‘He was running the place in (a Dwarka village) and also runs a YouTube channel with a large following. In both cases, it is alleged he called the women devotees on the pretext of helping them with problems and told them that ‘guru seva’ must be done. He then sexually assaulted the women and threatened them not to disclose the incident,’ the DCP was quoted as saying.
One of the women gave statements to a magistrate while the other sought a day because of health issues.
However, both women made identical allegations against the god man in the FIRs in September.
One of them alleged Kashyap raped her after giving her prasad that made her unconscious, according to the report.
‘I reached the… darbar of Kashyap where I was told there will be many problems in my house if I don’t abide by certain solutions told to me by Kashyap. My husband and I did everything; Kashyap then told us we had to do ‘Gurudharan’ for which he started demanding Rs 5 lakh from me… I refused… he then called me on September 2 to do seva… Guruji (Kashyap) was sitting in his room and he called me inside. He started touching me inappropriately to which I protested. He then gave me prasad which made me unconscious, following which he raped me.’ She was quoted as saying.