It is not just in America or in the Catholic church that we find religious people exploiting the trust people place in them and indulging in sexual abuse. This happens frequently among Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim religious figures as well, though not reported as widely here. Just today in India, supporters of a flamboyant Indian ‘holy man’ Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh went on a rampage after he was convicted of a 2002 rape. At least thirty people have been killed and over 250 injured.

Curfew was imposed in Panchkula and several other places after the situation spiraled out of control, with frenzied followers wreaking havoc on the streets, setting ablaze vehicles, buildings and railway stations. Similar incidents were also witnessed in Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan within a few hours of the pronouncement of the judgment by the CBI court.
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The 50-year-old Dera chief was lodged in the Rohtak district prison in Sunaria following his conviction in the rape case. Soon after the verdict was out, followers went on a rampage and clashed with security personnel. While 28 people were killed in Panchkula, two died in Sirsa, the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda.

The woman who brought the complaint against him described what had happened in a letter to the authorities where she pleaded for action to be taken.

In the letter addressed to then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Haryana CM and host of other top institutions, the sadhvi accused the Dera Sacha Sauda chief of raping her and other sadhvis and pleaded for an inquiry. As per a report in the Hindustan Times, Sadhvi said she along with 40-45 other girls had been doing service in the dera for years. She said Ram Rahim had called her into his residence inside the dera, two years after she had become a sadhvi and was threatened before he raped her.

Recounting her ordeal, she said she was repeatedly raped by the dera chief, who boasted that no authority can initiate proceeding against him. In the letter, she wrote that it was only after a point of time that she came to know that other women followers were also sexually exploited before and after her.

Concluding the letter, the woman had sought the intervention of the then prime minister and the courts. She refrained from her revealing her identity, saying that it would invite trouble for her and family members.

There is a danger that these supporters who are willing to kill so many people over a legal verdict may well try to unearth the identity of the woman and attack her and her family.