On Friday (16th February), Maharashtra Police booked three individuals identified as Uttam Vairagar, Sanjay Vairagar, and Sunil Vairagar for sexually assaulting two 10-year-old minor girls from the Sonai region of Ahmednagar district. The accused persons worked as Pastors in a local church and threatened the minors to keep their mouths shut after they raped them multiple times under the guise of exorcism.
The incident is said to have happened in the Rajwada village of Ahmednagar’s Sonai region. The police have taken cognizance of the event and have booked the accused persons under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Around 20 sections including rape charges have been imposed on the accused. A copy of the FIR has been obtained by OpIndia.
The FIR has been filed by a woman from Sonai identified as Supriya (name changed for security reasons). One of the girls who have been sexually assaulted by the Pastors is Supriya’s daughter while the other one is her niece.
As per the complaint, Supriya is a divorcee and stays with her parents in Sonai. She was introduced to the accused persons by one of the locals who said that all her problems would disappear if she went to the Church to see Pastor Uttam Vairagar and his associates. Supriya works as a daily labourer to earn a living. She stays with her parents, sister, 10-year-old daughter, and a minor niece.
Supriya, who got divorced from her husband 3 years ago, was struggling to survive. Meanwhile, she was also worried about her mother’s deteriorating health. To seek a solution to the escalating problems of her life and those related to her mother’s health, she agreed to see the Pastor at the local church.
After a couple of visits to the local Church, Pastor Vairagar suggested Supriya and her mother continue visiting the Church regularly. He also said that the two minor girls living with Supriya were possessed by evil spirits and that they needed immediate attention.
The Pastor then deceptively convinced the women that the 10-year-old girls needed to be treated in a closed room with no one else present inside. Supriya hesitated a bit but was assured after the pastors arrived at her residence to especially see her mother and check on her health.
The Pastor under the guise of offering a blessing, inappropriately touched Supriya making her feel uncomfortable. However, she opted not to doubt the intentions of the church authorities given their ‘religious position’. Later, the Pastor asked Supriya to send her daughter and niece to the church alone. He reiterated that the minor girls were possessed by evil spirits which resulted in the deteriorating health of her mother and that they both needed immediate personal attention.
However, as Supriya trusted the Pastor and sent her daughter and niece to the Church, the pastor and his associates sexually assaulted the girls and threatened them, as per the complaint. Vairagar asked them to remove their clothes and cooperate with the ‘treatment’ which involved inappropriate touching and sexual assault. The girls were threatened by the Pastor who asked them to keep their mouths shut.
As per the complaint copy, the minors were made to believe that their mother (Supriya) and grandmother would die if they uttered a single word about sexual assault to anybody. The accused also shot the video of the victim girls getting assaulted and shared the video with others.
The matter came to the attention of Supriya only after one of the locals showed her the derogatory video and warned her about sending her daughter and her niece to the Church. The woman was shocked to see the girls getting sexually assaulted in the video. On confronting the minors, they revealed that the Pastor had threatened them to keep her mouths shut.
The Police have filed a complaint against the three under sections 376(2), 376(2)(j), 376(2)(n), 376AB, 354A and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Sections 3, 4, 5f, 5m, 5l, 6, 7, 8, 9f, 9l, 9m, 10, 11 and 12 of the POCSO have also been imposed against the accused.
Further investigations into the case are underway.
