Anbu Jothi Ashram case | CB-CID gets three days custody of eight accused persons, including owner and wife

One more accused person has been granted bail as of now due to his advanced age, police said; the case relates to allegations of torture, sexual assault and trafficking of mentally ill residents at a care home in Villupuram district

The Crime Branch-CID has been granted three days custody of eight persons in the Anbu Jothi Ashram case, including the ashram’s owner Jubin Baby, his wife Maria and six other associates.

The case relates to the illegal detention, sexual assault and suspected inter-state trafficking of residents of the ashram, many of whom were mentally ill, resulting in the disappearance of several of the residents from the ashram premises in Kundalapuliyur near Vikravandi in Villupuram district.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Villupuram, M. Pushparani passed the order on Saturday with a direction to the CB-CID to produce the couple and six others, Biju Mohan, Boopalan, Muthumari, Gopinath, Ayappan and Satish, before the court at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Police said, Das, the ninth accused in the case, had already been released on bail in consideration of his advanced age.

The CB-CID, which took charge of the case on February 21 from the Kedar police, had filed a petition before the court on February 22, seeking three days of custody of the eight persons. Following the court order, the CB-CID team took the eight into their custody to interrogate them.