The Bombay high court on Wednesday rejected a criminal public interest litigation filed against godwoman Radhe Maa, saying that the petition is not in public interest as it is ‘individual-centric’.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday rejected a criminal public interest litigation filed against godwoman Radhe Maa, saying that the petition is not in public interest as it is ‘individual-centric’. The court also observed that police has not found any cognisable material against Radhe Maa to register an FIR.
The court also suggested that the petitioner, advocate Falguni Brahmbhatt, file a private petition and file a complaint at an appropriate forum to get justice. A division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice Swapana Joshi was hearing the PIL filed by Ms Brahmbhatt seeking an FIR against Radhe Maa on charges of obscenity, cheating and hurting religious sentiments. Ms Brahmbhatt moved the court after suburban Borivali police allegedly failed to take action on her complaint.
On Wednesday, while rejecting the PIL, the court said a large number of petition are being filed in the high court but these ‘frivolous petitions’ take a lot of the court’s time, which leads to huge number of pendency of cases.
Ms Brahmbhatt argued that Radhe Maa and her followers used to organise programmes where she and her staff forced people to worship her as a goddess and she asked money from them to solve personal problems. After the programme, she allegedly sexually harassed some of them. Radhe Maa’s lawyer, Prasad Dhakephalkar, argued that petitioner has no locus in the case because she has not been cheated by Radhe Maa.
