A police complaint by a US resident about his missing father-in-law in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district has unearthed a web of grisly crimes, including rape and torture, allegedly perpetrated by the people running an unlicensed shelter home on the people who lived there, police said on Wednesday.
The Anbu Jothi Ashram in Kedar village housed 142 people, all of whom have now been rescued, said collector C Palani. Police have registered two first information reports (FIR) against the owners of the shelter home – B Jubin Baby and his wife C Mariya – who appeared to have targeted poor and homeless people. While Mariya has been arrested, the process to arrest Jubin is underway, police said.
Four other staff members – warden Muthumaari, computer operator Gopinath, staff Ayyapan and driver Biju – were arrested on Tuesday.
“One FIR has been registered against all six of them for human trafficking, illegal confinement and torture based on the complaint of the district welfare officer,” superintendent of police (SP) R Shreenatha said. “Another FIR has been registered based on the complaint of one female resident who has accused the owner Jubin of rape and sexual assault.”
Police said they have invoked 11 sections of the Indian Penal Code and sections under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 1998, against the accused, without providing further details.
Some residents said the lactating women were forced to breastfeed monkeys that the owners kept on the campus, but police said this allegation had not been confirmed.
The accused couple are in hospital after their pet monkeys bit them on February 10, police said.
Police also said the residents of the home were homeless people from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha. They told the police that they were raped, beaten and that the owners of the home had monkeys which were used to hurt them. Five accused in this case were remanded to police custody recently.
The case came to light after US resident Salim Khan came to visit his father-in-law in Villupuram in August 2022 but the ashram told him that he had been shifted to another institute in Bengaluru. It is not known whether Khan had willingly admitted his father-in-law there. When Khan didn’t find him in Bengaluru, he filed a missing persons complaint with the local police in Kedar village in December.
On February 10, a team led by Villupuram deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Priyadarshini inspected the ashram in Bengaluru and found 15 people missing from the premises. The SP said there was no record of them. Two monkeys roaming on the campus bit 10 people, the officer added. The forest department took away the monkeys, people in the know of the crime said. On the orders of the collector, the home was sealed on Tuesday.
The institute had 142 residents, out of which 109 were men and 33 women. Officials also found a three-year-old boy, the son of one of the women. Palani said 68 people were sent to other government-run homes. The modus operandi of the accused was to pick up homeless people and seek donations to rehabilitate them and treat mental illnesses, according to the police.
The ashram’s website said it ran a “residential home for the mentally ill and destitute” registered in 2005. It was registered as a a drugs rehabilitation centre that year but officials couldn’t tell when the licence lapsed.
“They applied for a licence last year but it was rejected,” Shreenatha said.
In a February 13 statement, the Tamil Nadu State Mental Health Authority said its review board inspected the ashram on December 12, and learnt that it was being run without any registration. For violating section 65 of the Mental Health Care Act, 2017, a fine of ₹5,000 was imposed. “The Anbu Jothi Ashram is directed not to admit any mentally-ill person without registration of the establishment,” the statement added.
R Lalitha, a volunteer of a local non-governmental organisation, Social Awareness Society for Youths, said she met three women victims on February 13 at the ashram. “A married woman had come here to escape an abusive husband and told me that she was made to breastfeed a monkey last month,” said Lalitha. “The monkeys were also used to instil fear among anyone who tried to escape.”
Lalitha said that a 23-year-old woman from Odisha alleged that Jubin had repeatedly raped her in the ashram. “She said that he would take her in a van driven by a driver and rape her in another building 40-km away. This had been happening for the last five years and when she resisted, the monkeys were released to attack her,” added Lalitha.
Another woman left her home in Kolkata when she was a minor and arrived at Chennai railway station 10 years ago, said Lalitha. She complained that she was raped by Jubin and the driver, Biju, for years.
Police said that Mariya has been arrested and Jubin will be picked up shortly.
“Originally, this was a police complaint. Then a writ petition was filed by Khan in the Madras high court and based on the court’s orders, a team of officials inspected the institute and found all of them to be in a very bad condition,” said a senior government official not willing to be quoted.
Activist Ramesh Nathan blamed the government for not monitoring such cases. “At least when they received an application for a licence last year, district authorities should have inspected this place,” said Nathan.
“The government is accountable for failing in its duty to monitor the functioning of such illegal homes,” he added.
