The Cult Of Self-Styled Godman Virender Dev Dixit
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Virender Dev Dixit is an 82-year-old self-styled godman, formerly a Brahma Kumari adherent. He convinced some followers of BK that he was the second coming of or a medium for their guru Lekhraj Brahma Kirpalani, and went ahead to establish the Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya or “the Advance Party.”
Starting from his home in 1984, then with his child bride Kamla Devi, Dixit amassed over 50,000 followers and AVV centres in every city of India. The godman has, however, been embroiled in controversy since 1998 when two girls from the Kampil ashram accused him of rape. The court dropped the cases after the survivors turned hostile. Then, in 2017, based on complaints from neighbours, DCW began investigating the Delhi-based AVV ashrams in Vijay Vihar, Nangloi, Karawal Nagar and Mohan Gardens. What it found shocked the nation.
In 2017, the NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment, represented by lawyer Sravan Kumar, filed a petition before the Delhi High Court that alleged Dixit had Illegally confined several minor girls and women at his “spiritual university” and that the members of AVV were not allowed to meet their parents. The case remains pending before HC. However, in the meantime, Delhi Commission of Women (DCW)’s former chief Swati Maliwal started investigations into AVV facilities and it was found that Dixit had allegedly raped many of his followers. Maliwal along with CBI raided locations across the Capital city and freed over 41 women. Dixit has been absconding since 2018, and there’s a look-out notice on him.
Content retrieved from: https://www.outlookindia.com/national/the-cult-of-self-styled-godman-virender-dev-dixit.
