SINDHUPALCHOWK, Jan 7: A team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police on Sunday returned to Kathmandu after raiding the ashram of Ram Bahadur Bomjan, the self-proclaimed ascetic also known as ‘Buddha boy’ who has been accused of disappearing several of his disciples.
Bomjan’s ashram at Bandegaun in Sindhupalchowk district was sealed for two days beginning Friday by a joint team from the CIB and police from the District Police Office (DPO), Sindhupalchowk.
The team dug up suspicious areas in the ashram in search for the bodies of the missing followers of Bomjan. After digging a hole, the team also recovered empty packets of salt and charcoal found on the ashram premises for investigation.
Pregnant women deprived of iodized salt in Bajhang
“We returned after carrying out preliminary investigation and securing potential evidences,” said Superintendent of Police (SP) Mukunda Marasini, chief of the DPO. “There are potential evidences so the place needs to be kept under surveillance. We’ll study the samples collected from the site.”
Police started investigation after receiving a complaint that Bomjan’s follower Sancha Lal Waiba of Hetauda, Makwanpur, was murdered in the Bandegaun ashram. Three of the four nuns serving the ascetic had also gone missing from the same ashram, according to complaints filed with police.
Sancha Lal reportedly remains missing since March 29, 2015. His son Mahendra had filed complaints at the district police offices of Makwanpur and Sindhupalchowk requesting the police to search for his father.
Mahendra has accused Bomjan and his followers of murdering his father, burying him in a patch of land near the ashram and attempting to cover up the crime by sprinkling 20 packets of salt on the body. Although the CIB discovered signs of digging in the reported place, there was no trace of the dead though.
Nine empty packets of salt were recovered from the area. CIB suspects that the bodies of the victims could have been dug out and burnt to destroy the evidence. Hence, the packets of salt and charcoal samples were collected for further investigation.
The chairman of the Ashram Management Committee, Bidur Tamang, said he and the locals are not aware of any suspicious activities inside Bomjan’s ashram. “During our visits to the ashram, we have not seen anything suspicious,” he said.
SP Marasini said they have put Bomjan’s Bandegaun ashram under constant surveillance.
