Jul 01, 2025 06:30 PM IST
The Murshidabad police had sent a summon notice to the monk, popularly known as Kartik Maharaj, on Monday, asking him to appear by 10 am on Tuesday for questioning Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday accepted a petition from 2025 Padma Shri awardee Swami Pradiptananda, head of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s Beldanga ashram in Murshidabad district, seeking quashing of the first information report (FIR) police filed last week after a local woman accused him of rape.
Swami Pradiptananda. (File Photo) Lawyers aware of the development said the monk’s counsels filed the petition before the single bench of justice Jay Sengupta. The bench is likely to hold a hearing on Wednesday.
Murshidabad’s Lalbagh police station, which registered the case on June 26, sent a summon notice to the monk, popularly known as Kartik Maharaj, on Monday, asking him to appear by 10 am on Tuesday for questioning. The monk, who was in Kolkata, skipped the summon.
“Kartik Maharaj moved the high court on Tuesday afternoon,” one of his aides told HT, requesting anonymity. The monk did not make any comment and avoided the media.
The complainant alleged that Swami Pradiptananda had raped her repeatedly between 2012 and 2019 by promising her a job. In the complaint letter, a copy of which was seen by HT, she said she was forced to undergo an abortion in 2013. She also claimed to have talked to Swami Pradiptananda over the phone on June 12 and alleged that two men sent by him threatened her the following day.
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