Police have started to search the Sindhupalchowk ashram of Ram Bahadur Bomjon where Sancha Lal Waiwa was allegedly murdered and three nuns have disappeared from.
A big police team including forensic experts reached the ashram in Bandegaun, Sindhupalchowk at 11:30 Friday morning. SP with Sindhupalchowk Police Mukunda Marasini is leading the police team including personnel from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).
Police had already taken permission from the Sindhupalchowk District Court on Thursday to search Bomjon's ashram.
Police sources told Setopati that IGP Sarbendra Khanal has himself been leading the plan to complete legal processes and take action against Bomjon. Khanal has mobilized CIB Chief DIG Niraj Shahi, SP in Makwanpur Buddhi Gurung and SP Marasini for the purpose, according to the sources.
Eye-witnesses have claimed that Bomjon's disciple Waiwa was beaten to death and his body was buried inside the Sindhupalchowk ashram.
Police have started investigations from the ashram as another disciple Suresh Ale, and two nuns Chunmo and Dolmo have also been missing from that ashram. It is not clear where the third nun Sarita Bot is missing from.
Two eye-witnesses, who were Bomjon's disciples then, have told Setopati that Bomjon himself beat his disciples Waiwa and Indra Man accusing them of sorcery four years ago. Waiwa breathed his last while being beaten.
"Many of us inside the ashram had fallen ill. Guru, therefore, beat Waiwa and Indra Man accusing them of sorcery. Waiwa fell down while taking the blows and died in a while," one of the eye-witnesses told Setopati.
There was a puja inside the ashram from March 22-29, 2015. Many nuns and disciples fell ill on the last day. They would cry and wail without any reasons, according to the witnesses.
Bomjon accused Waiwa and Indra Man of using sorcery to make them ill. He beat both the disciples on March 30 and also ordered other disciples to beat the duo.
Around half a dozen disciples then beat the duo with sticks, pipes and kicks. Bomjon ordered to bury Waiwa's body on the hill behind the house he lived in after Waiwa died, according to the witnesses. They claim Bomjon ordered to scatter around 25 packets of salt above the body. "Salt apparently helps in early decay of the body," the witnesses reminisce.
The main reason for searching the Sindhupalchowk ashram is to search the spot where Waiwa's body was buried, according to police sources. "We have also taken forensic experts to exhume the body if the spot is traced," a source stated.
One has to walk around half an hour through the jungle from the road to reach the ashram situated at Todkebhir in Bandegaun of Sindhupalchowk.
Bomjon does not stay at the ashram now and only a few of his disciples live there. Bomjon himself lives in the ashram in Sindhuli, according to the police. "We are keeping a close watch on Bomjon and his ashram in Sindhuli," a police source said.
Four separate police complaints were registered in different districts claiming that family members have disappeared from Bomjon's ashram after Setopati published a news report titled 'Series of sexual exploitation and violence in Bomjon's ashrams' last week documenting how four persons are missing from his ashram.
Mahendra Waiwa of Makwanpur filed a police complaint requesting for search of his father who went to Bomjon's ashram, Hasta Bahadur Ale Magar of Bara in search of his son, Bijay Rumba of Makwanpur for her elder sister and Ganga Maya Tamang of Nuwakot for her younger sister
Waiwa of Hetauda sub-metropolitan city 14 lodged the police complaint claiming his father Sancha Lal has been missing from the ashram of Bomjon for four years.
Waiwa's father had called from Bomjon's ashram in Badegaun, Sindhupalchowk on March 28, 2015 and said he will return home three days later. He had filed police complaint even then when his father did not come home even in 10 days. He then went to the ashram two days later only to be told that his father had already left the ashram.
He mentioned in the complaint that his father has not been found despite searching for all these years.
Rumba of Rangashala, Hetauda filed the complaint in search of elder sister Phul Maya Rumba who was named Dolmo at Bomjon's ashram. Rumba mentioned that his sister, who was staying at the ashram since 2011, had called in February 2015 from the ashram in Badegaun, Sindhupalchowk saying she will come home soon to see her parents.
Her parents were told she left the ashram in April when they went to meet him in June. She has not been in contact since that last phone call.
Dolmo's friend Karma Tamang of Nuwakot, named Chunmo at the ashram, is also missing. "This applicant's younger sister had gone to the Bomjon ashram in Sindhuli for study in 2011," Chunmo's elder sister Ganga Maya Tamang has said in her complaint with Nuwakot Police filed. "She had come home with a friend in 2012 and stayed for a day. They returned to the ashram. They have not come into contact ever since. I have registered this application seeking requisite search."
Ganga Maya and her family had tried to meet Bomjon after Chunmo went missing but he refused to meet. She says those close to Bomjon told them that they do not know where Chunmo went after leaving the ashram.
Mahendra Waiwa, Bijay Rumba and Ganga Maya Tamang were unaware about the violence and murder of their father and sisters respectively until Setopati published the series of news reports.
Hasta Bahadur Ale Magar, who contacted Setopati saying his son Suresh has also been missing from Bomjon's ashram for three years after the news reports were published, also filed the police complaint.
Magar's son Suresh, who had been living in Bomjon's ashram, had returned home after the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015. Magar claimed that Bomjon's disciple Jas Bahadur Waiwa had convinced his son, who had returned home for good, to return to ashram and taken him on a motorcycle. Magar claims that his son has not been in contact ever since.
"I request to find his actual state and rescue him as he has gone missing from Ram Bahadur Bomjon's ashram," Magar's complaint read.
