Woman accuses temple monk of raping her in 2016

A monk earlier staying at the Wadi Swaminarayan Temple in Vadodara has been accused of rape by a woman who claimed that the incident took place in 2016 when she was 14 years old. The woman claimed in an offence registered at the Wadi police station that the accused also had her nude videos and photographs.
The woman alleged that she had started going to the temple with her family in 2014. She added that in 2015, the accused Jagatpavandas Swami joined the temple. According to the complaint, her father came in touch with Jagatpavandas in 2016.
The complainant claimed that in July 2016, the accused called on her father’s mobile phone which she used in the night. She received the call and spoke to the accused. Later, she and the accused used to chat on WhatsApp in the night when she had her father’s phone.
The complaint states that the accused had gone to the USA in 2016 and brought a watch as a gift for her. He asked her to collect it, but the complainant asked him to give the watch to her father. However, Jagatpavandas did not do so and on Sep 10, 2016, when the survivor was visiting the temple, she went to the room of the accused where she was allegedly raped. He threatened her and asked her not to disclose the incident to anyone. The next day the accused came to her school and gave her pills to avoid a pregnancy which she swallowed. The accused left the temple in Nov 2019 and did not keep in touch after this.
Assistant commissioner of police G D Palsana said that the police was presently gathering evidence about the case. He said that the accused had been booked under the POCSO Act as the complainant was a minor at the time of the incident.