On Monday, the Madras High Court demanded an Action Taken Report (ATR) from the police on the issue of the Villupuram Anbu Jothi Ashram, where there have been accusations of torture, sexual assault, and human trafficking involving people suffering from mental disorders who were admitted to the ashram.
Justices M.M. Sundar and M. Nirmal Kumar, sitting on a division bench, requested the report by February 27 in response to a habeas corpus petition that claimed one of the detainees, Zafirullah (70), had mysteriously vanished from the Jubin Baby-run ashram.
The officers in the case have arrested eight individuals at the shelter home, including its founders, Jubin (45) and Maria (43), Christians from Kerala, as well as the warden identified as Muthumaari, the computer operator Gopinath, the attendant Iyyappan, and the chauffeur Biju. The eight have been apprehended on suspicion of rape, assault, and wrongful incarceration.
The petition in the case was filed by a US resident Salim Khan. According to the reports, the ashram was first founded by Halideen, a friend of Jawahirullah’s nephew Salim Khan. Khan resides in the United States and it is on his request that Halideen discovered the ashram through one of his other friends, to accommodate Jawahirullah.
As a result, the petitioner enabled the elderly guy to stay at the ashram; nevertheless, he was later discovered to have vanished. He was informed that some of the inmates had been sent to a facility in Bengaluru after asking. The petitioner made every attempt to find the missing person, but his search was unsuccessful.
The Kedar police then filed a First Information Report for “man missing” in response to a complaint filed by Salim, and when that attempt made no progress, he went to court with the current appeal. Jubin Baby, who oversaw the ashram, received a notification from the court on January 2 of this year.
Moreover, it instructed the Gingee Sub Division Deputy Superintendent of Police to keep an eye on the Kedar Inspector of Police’s inquiry into the “man missing” issue and to produce the missing person in front of a Villupuram Judicial Magistrate court if he had been located by then.
The bench headed by Judge Sundar heard the case on February 9 and discovered that Jubin Baby had not shown up in court despite receiving both a court notice from January 24 and a private notice from the petitioner’s attorney on January 4.
The justices ordered the police to bring him before the court on Monday as a result. Nonetheless, the police inspected the ashram in the interim and discovered that it was being conducted unlawfully and without any authorization, according to Assistant Public Prosecutor R Muniyapparaj, who testified before the court.
As reported earlier, allegations of human rights violations against the shelter home include sexual assault, rape, violence, human trafficking, and torture. With the promise of three meals per day and a secure place to stay, the facility attracted homeless people. Many were allegedly sedated and tonsured later to give the impression that they had mental health issues.
Jawahirullah was reportedly admitted to Anbu Jothi Ashram on December 4, 2021, however, he later disappeared from there. Salim asked the ashram employees about his father-in-law, and they informed him that he had been sent to another facility in Bengaluru that was also purportedly associated with Anbu Jothi.
When a Tamil Nadu police team went there for investigation, the director of the Bengaluru residence, Raju alias Auto Raja, said that the elderly man and a few others escaped from the property by smashing open a bathroom window. Afterward, Salim petitioned the Madras High Court (HC) for a writ of habeas corpus in an effort to locate Jawahirullah.
As soon as the HC gave cops the go-ahead to search for and find the missing person, they discovered hundreds of victims in the ashram. Police officers and volunteers were able to rescue up to 142 persons, including 109 men, 33 women, and a boy.
It was revealed that some prisoners had been sexually molested by staff members, while others had been tortured, shackled, and even attacked by caged monkeys. Out of the 142 people that were rescued, 130 have been accepted into a home for the needy and 12 have been returned to their families. The ashram is now blacklisted.
A native of Kerala’s Ernakulam, Jubin is also known as Anbu Jubin or Baby Jubin. In 2005, he came upon Villupuram while volunteering at a private dwelling. There are rumours that Jubin and his wife Maria established a home in a small rented space in the Periyar colony with 12 people. Later, this expanded into a space with 200 individuals.
The investigators have so far found two properties that are allegedly owned by the couple in Tamil Nadu and one in Bengaluru. The Additional Public Prosecutor R Muniyapparaj stated to the court that Jubin Baby has been arrested and remanded in judicial custody and there is no video- conferencing facility in the sub jail where he is lodged at present. After hearing him, the judges ordered the filing of an action taken report by February 27.
