KATHMANDU: Instances of criminal activities under religious hide are rising of late in the country. The crimes have gone up so high that  the crimes have got new names ‘religious crimes.’ The crimes are not confined to one religion. From Hindu gurus to Christian priests or other people in religious guises are found to stain the cult or community by their shameful immoral activities.

Here are some representative cases to reveal the criminal activities executed under the ‘sacred’ veil.

Case No. 1: Ram Bahadur Bamjan, who used to claim himself Little Buddha was alleged of being responsible for the disappearance of his four disciples. The ‘victim’ family filed a case against him with the police, however, he has gone absconding for more than a year now. According to Police Spokesperson DIG Sailesh Thapa, he is in the ‘wanted’ list.

Phulmaya Rumba- Makawanpur, Chini Maya Tamang alias Karma- Nuwakot, Sancha Lal Waiba- Makawanpur and Suresh Kumar Ale Magar- Bara are said to have become the victim of his forced disappearance. Although there are speculations about their murder, the police have not found any proof of it so far. Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) is making a further investigation into it.

Most of the people trust the people in ‘holy’ robes as if they possess supernatural powers and go to them for any of their problems,” Malla says, “However, criminal-minded people take advantage of the disciples’ gullibility and take to their exploitation.”

Case No. 2: Krishna Bahadur Giri alias Siddha Baba Ram Krishnacharya Shree Vaishnav Krishnadas or Siddha Baba, in short, a priest of Hanuman Temple, Barahachhetra, Sunsari was arrested on the rape case against his disciple on Dec 2, 2019. He was arrested from the hospital and was released on bail on Jan 23, 2020, when he absconded from the court’s yard. When the court asked police to take him in remand, it is said he fled to India after getting the signal that the case would go against him.

Case No. 3: Another ‘guru or ‘Baba’ has gone in hiding in this case. In the last week of January,  a case was filed after Bijaya Bhandari, a fake ‘Baba’ who had been collecting money with a promise to send his disciples to the USA.

Lately, he was running a ‘Koti Hom’, a holy program, aimed at collecting more than 250 million rupees in Chitwan.

Case No. 4:  Deepak Bhandari alias Swami Shivananda Baba was arrested on Jan 13, 2020, alleged for committing fraud taking money with the promise to send his disciples to Europe. According to SSP Sahakul Thapa, the chief of the Metropolitan Crime Division, he had been tempting his followers with few places of Europe and had collected Rs three million from them.

Case No. 5: Hari Narayan Sharma alias Baba Rameshwor who had been living in Rampurwa, Bara for five years was arrested in a rape case on Feb 3, 2020. The alleged Rameshwor, 53, had raped a 13-year-old girl and was trying to run away. He is from Sinta Gram Panchayat Bundi, Rajasthan, India.

Case No. 6: Dhruva Baba Joshi alias Pastor Biswas of Asha Biswasi Church, Lalitpur was arrested in a rape allegation on Jan 12, 2020. According to police, Pastor Biswas had been raping the young woman saying provided they had had intercourse with him god would redeem her from all sins. The case is under investigation. The Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur is executing the probe.

Case No. 7:  A crooked intent Bal Sant Swami Shree Niwashacharya was attacked by a gunman on Apr 8, 2019. When the police probed on the issue, it was revealed that ‘Swami’ himself had asked his bodyguard Madhav Chaudhary to fire at him. His motive behind this fake attack was to provoke the ultra-radical Hindu agenda.

Case No. 8: Basanta Balampaki, the priest of Indeshwor Mahadev Temple at, Bardibas-3, Bhabsi was arrested with some weapons on May 19, 2018. He was alleged of executing various notorious activities like provoking the youths to take marijuana and also for making girls hostage and sexually abuse them. He committed such crimes under the veil of healing the mentally sick or depressed people.

Case No. 9:  Rimpochhe  Chhulthim Dorje Yonjan Tulku Lama of Pema Tashi Chhuling Ghombo Kasung Gumba at Bosan, Dakshinkali was alleged of rape on Oct. 5, 2017. The Chief of Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police who had taken part in the investigation of the case, Puskar Karki concluded that the alleged had raped a young woman who had consulted Rimpochhe for healing through tantrik rituals.

The Kathmandu District Court held Lama guilty in cybercrime and Patan High Cout held him guilty in the rape of the young woman. 57 years old Lama had to pass seven years in jail and pay Rs three million as compensation.

The mentioned are only a few representative cases of crimes taking place under the religious hide.

“There are many instances of the ‘holy persons’ like the priests, pastors, Rimpochhe being involved in such criminal activities,” DIG Thapa, the spokesperson of Nepal Police says.

Former DIG Hemanta Malla regards the blind faith on such people as one of the major causes of such incidents.“

Most of the people trust the people in ‘holy’ robes as if they possess supernatural powers and go to them for any of their problems,” Malla says, “However, criminal-minded people take advantage of the disciples’ gullibility and take to their exploitation.”

Spokesperson Thapa appeals the public to be more alert and a bit skeptic about such people and affirms that the police is intensifying its efforts to curb all types of crimes,

“In some cases, an investigation may take a bit more time, however, the culprits shall be booked for their crimes whatever their veils maybe,” he said.

Citing that such instances defame the institutions and hurt the feelings of many followers, culture experts and the elders demand strict measures against the hypocrites executing criminal activities under religious veils and appeal the people to be cautious about such ‘cold-blooded’ criminals.