Padma Shri monk accused of rape, abortion and threats in shocking Bengal complaint

A Padma Shri awardee monk in West Bengal has been accused of repeatedly raping a woman over several years under the pretext of offering her a job, in a case that has triggered outrage and deepened the state’s ongoing reckoning with sexual violence.

Swami Pradiptananda — popularly known as Kartik Maharaj and associated with the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s Beldanga unit in Murshidabad—faces allegations of serial rape, forced abortion, and threats dating back to 2013. The survivor, who recently lodged a formal police complaint, says the abuse began after the monk promised her a position at a girls’ residential school linked to the ashram.

“He took me to a room on the fifth floor almost daily and raped me,” the woman stated in her complaint filed with the Nabagram police, recounting her ordeal in disturbing detail. She alleges the abuse continued at multiple ashram branches, while he repeatedly dangled the false promise of employment.

In 2013, after becoming pregnant, the woman says Maharaj forcibly took her to a private nursing home in Berhampore and made her undergo an abortion against her will. “When I refused, he threatened me. He even spoke to the doctor himself while staff from the school were present,” she said.

The complaint further claims that Maharaj continued to exploit her mentally and sexually for years. On June 13 this year, after she reached out to him again, two unidentified men allegedly assaulted and threatened her, warning her to stay away from Maharaj.

The monk, however, has dismissed the allegations outright, calling them part of a “conspiracy to malign” his reputation. “Time will reveal the truth. Ask the women at our ashram. We treat them like our mothers,” he was quoted as saying.

The serious charges come even as Swami Pradiptananda was honored with the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, earlier this year for his public service.

The case emerges amid growing public fury over back-to-back incidents of sexual violence in West Bengal — including the alleged gangrape of a law student inside a Kolkata college and the rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar Medical College last year, both of which sparked nationwide protests.

The political ramifications have also intensified, with the opposition BJP targeting the ruling Trinamool Congress after images of a rape-accused student leader surfaced alongside senior TMC leaders. The TMC has denied current links to the accused and called for strict legal action.