HC upholds life term for godman who sexually exploited 6 minors

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has upheld the conviction of a self-proclaimed godman who was imprisoned for life by the sessions court in 2016 for sexually exploiting seven girls including six minors for over five years. Mehandi Kasim Jenul Abidin Shaikh also known as ‘Bengali Baba’ was also held guilty of extracting over ₹1.37 crore from the mothers of the minor girls under the guise of “curing” them so they could produce intellectually bright male children.
The division bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Manjusha Deshpande on February 21 rejected the appeal filed by Shaikh, saying there was direct evidence linking him to the crimes and witness testimonies were duly corroborated by medical evidence.
In 2005, Shaikh, a maulavi, used to visit the residence of one of the girls to teach Quran and Arabic, during which he found out that her mother’s maternal side had a history of producing intellectually deficient children. She herself had a son with special needs and was apprehensive, along with her three sisters, that their daughters would also beget intellectually challenged male children.
Shaikh informed the woman and his sisters that he could ‘cure’ their daughters numbering seven, aged between 5 years and 16 years. He sexually exploited the girls over the next five years, during weekends and school vacations, on the pretext of curing them, in lieu of which their mothers gave him gold and cash amounting to ₹1.37 crore. The women also purchased a two-bedroom flat for Shaikh and deployed a house help for his services, who too was sexually assaulted. Two of the girls had to undergo abortion during this period.
The misdeeds of Shaikh came to light when one of the minor girls spoke about their ordeal to their grandfather, who in turn alerted other male members of their family. Shaikh was booked by the JJ Marg police in November 2010, and was arrested subsequently. On April 6, 2017, he was convicted by the sessions court on multiple counts of rape and other charges and sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life.
The high court, while upholding the sentence, said, “This is one such bizarre case of blind faith. It is extremely unfortunate that seven young girls – six minors and the maid – were sexually exploited by the appellant, as the mothers of the minors feared that the girls would beget intellectually challenged boys. The appellant took full advantage of the apprehension of the victims’ mothers and by manipulating their fears, assured to cure the girls and in the process, also financially exploited them.”