A seer in Andhra Pradesh was arrested on June 19 for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl over months in his Visakhapatnam ashram.
Purnananda Saraswati was arrested after the orphan minor escaped from the ashram to Vijayawada and filed a complaint. A case has been registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act.
According to the police, the girl has said that the seer of repeatedly tortured and sexually assaulted her. The police said that the girl's parents died when she was young and her maternal grandmother left her at the ashram two years ago.