Kartik Maharaj moves HC, seeks cover from coercive action
Times of India | 2 July 2025
Kolkata: Padma Shri awardee Swami Pradiptananda, known as Kartik Maharaj, on Tuesday moved Calcutta High Court seeking protection from coercive action in a rape complaint filed against him.
The matter was mentioned before Justice Jay Sengupta and is likely to be heard on Wednesday.
The development came after a legal notice was issued asking Kartik Maharaj to appear at Nabagram police station for questioning. Beldanga police station cops delivered the notice, summoning him on July 1, to Bharat Sevashram Sangha authorities on Monday.
In her complaint filed with Nabagram police, the woman alleged that Kartik Maharaj promised her a job at one of the ashram's schools in Dec 2012. The survivor said she was accommodated at the school hostel in Jan 2013, with an assurance that she would soon be hired. "However, almost every day he would take me to a room on the fifth floor of the premises and rape me," she said.