Swaminarayan sect priest raped woman in moving car: Police

A married woman was allegedly raped by a Swaminarayan sect priest in a moving car at knifepoint in Junagadh in Gujarat, police said Monday. The accused Swami Anandswarup Dasji allegedly called the woman to meet him under the pretext of helping her to resolve a dispute with her husband, and raped her at knifepoint in the car on February 18, said a police official from Junagadh, around 320 km from here.

Dasji allegedly threatened the woman, who is in her 30s, to abduct her daughter if she approached police, he said. The driver of the car, Shyam Sundar Swami, allegedly helped the priest in committing the crime, the official said, adding that the driver was also named in the FIR lodged Sunday evening.

"In her complaint, the woman said she was separated from her husband and had approached the priest to seek his help in resolving her differences with her husband. "Dasji called her on his mobile phone and messaged her regularly asking her to meet him. On February 18, he asked her to meet him. After the woman approached him, he asked her to sit in his car and raped her," said the Junagadh C-division police station official.

Dasji and Shyam Sundar are absconding, he said, adding that they are booked under sections 376 (Punishment for rape), 506 (b) (criminal intimidation), and 114 (abettor present when an offence is committed) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).