A most interesting event happened when the Advocate
Commissioner visited ‘Peace Society’, a women’s hostel cited by the trustees for inspection. The
Warden of ‘Peace Society’ took the Commissioner aside and reported to him that
even previously the girls had been ordered to stay here. She told him that one
Purushottam Kothari and his wife Maya had visited her with an elderly person
called Batti. These people claimed to be our brother, sister-in-law and father.
They represented that their sisters were coming from northern India in a few
days and would be here for a few months. Since women hostel was a safe place
and they had heard highly about this particular one, they desired that their
sisters should be accommodated under her care. They had even paid some advance.
The Warden continued her story and said later she
came to know from her friend working at ‘Department for Women and Child
Development’, Pondicherry, (DWCD) that these sisters were inmates of Ashram who
were facing sexual harassment at the hands of the trustees and that Govt. of Pondicherry was investigating
the matter. Her friend also told her that these people had come from the
trustees side to misrepresent, mislead and her soft-soap her since they wanted
to put up a good image before the pending investigation.
The Warden told the Commissioner that the trustees
were harassing the sisters and that we were good girls. But in view of the pending
litigation it would not be fair to the other already resident-women if she gave
us accommodation in her hostel.
Advocate Commissioner mentioned this comment in
his report dated 22.12.2008.
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