- By Yashashvi Tak
- Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:23 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
A minor female student of Warkari Gurukul in Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra, accused the head of the Gurukul, Bhagwan Kokare Maharaj, and a teacher, Pritesh Prabhakar Kadam, of sexual assault. A case has been registered against the two accused.
The report claimed that the sexual assault of the girl began a week after she was admitted to the Gurukul. The incident came to light when she narrated her ordeal to her father, accusing Bhagwan Kokare Maharaj, head of Warkari Gurukul, and teacher Pritesh Prabhakar Kadam of molesting her.
According to the NDTV report, boys and girls from several parts of Maharashtra enroll in the Gurukul to receive spiritual education, and the victim had also enrolled on June 12. The first eight days went well until Kokare allegedly began to assault her.
"Whenever I was alone in the room, he would walk in, punch me, and touch my chest," said the victim.
She further alleged that she was threatened with dire consequences, which prevented her from speaking out.
"Pritesh Prabhakar Kadam warned me against speaking out, cautioning that Kokare's contacts and connections could be leveraged to implicate my father, and kill me and my brother. I was told I would be barred from pursuing my education," the victim added.
After the girl’s father approached the police, a case was registered against the Gurukul head and the teacher under Sections 12 and 17 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, covering sexual harassment and abetment of a sexual offence against a child, the report claimed.
Both accused were arrested and sent to two-day police custody following investigations.
In a separate, on October 13, an 18-year-old first-year B.Tech student at Delhi’s South Asian University (SAU) was allegedly sexually and physically assaulted, stripped of her clothes, and forced to consume an abortion pill by four people, including a security guard, on campus.
The student was found injured, with her clothes torn, on the campus a day after she had been reported missing, according to police quoted by news agency PTI. An FIR was registered, and the victim’s statement was recorded before the district magistrate.