The Soro police on Thursday arrested and court-forwarded one Govind Mallick (62), a self-proclaimed god man, on the charge of sexually abusing a woman disciple for years.
The 45-year-old victim had lodged a complaint in a local court in March this year in this regard. The police had registered a case involving offences like rape, sexual harassment, obscene act in public place and forgery against Mallick.
A team led by Sub Divisional Police Officer conducted investigation during which a polygraph test was conducted on Mallick. On receipt of the test report, the accused was arrested, said Soro PS IIC Raisan Murmu.
Sources said Mallick, a former State Government employee, had formed an NGO which was blacklisted as financial embezzler.
He then collected donations from people and constructed Shree Shree laxminarayan Dugra temple at Badagaon under Bahanga block. He headed a trust named after the temple.
A few months later, he paid a visit to Haridwar and on return he proclaimed himself as ‘Thakur Baba’. The victim, hailing from a village under the Khaira police station, came in contact with the Baba about 20 years ago when she had come to visit the temple.
As per her complaint, the Baba had been keeping physical relationship with her and they both had visited several religious places, including Haridwar. During their visits they used to stay together in mutts, ashrams, hotels and lodges.
She said she lodged a complaint after she found that Mallick was also keeping physical relationship with other women devotees using various tactics. Mallick started torturing her, both physically and mentally, when she protested his conduct, the victim stated in her complaint.