Two held for employing kids for cooking in an ashram

Two men who ran an ashram in Kandivali east have been arrested by Samta Nagar police for allegedly employing children for reciting mantras and cooking, not paying them, and beating them if their work was not up to the mark.

Acting on a tip-off, local Kandivali police raided the ashram and rescued as many as 28 children, 12 of whom are minors and were sent to the Dongri shelter by cops. Further investigation is on and cops are trying to unite the remaining children with their parents. Police is also trying to identify if more people are involved in the crime.

The arrested accused, identified as Devendra Manoj Dube and Bhagwan Das Tiwari, who ran the ashram, have been booked under section 370 (trafficking of persons) and 125 (right to maintenance) of IPC, the police said. According to police, the duo used to force the children to pray and recite mantras until such time they got tired and when they stopped, they would assault them and torture them.

Officials came to know about the goings-on on Friday afternoon when a relative of one of the victims informed them that he had received a SMS from the kid mentioning the harassment. No sooner, police raided the ashram near Terapanth Bhawan in Samta Nagar on Friday evening and rescued all the kids. Police said that the victims had been told that they would get good money for mantra recitation in the ashram.