Don’t get carried away by media reports on Anbu Jothi ashram case, HC advises CB-CID

The Madras High Court on Wednesday advised the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) not to get carried away by media reports on the Anbu Jothi ashram case, and instead file a proper report listing the materials it had collected so far to prove the charges of human trafficking, organ theft and so on.

The Madras High Court on Wednesday advised the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) not to get carried away by media reports on the Anbu Jothi ashram case, and instead file a proper report listing the materials it had collected so far to prove the charges of human trafficking, organ theft and so on.

Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira made the observations during the hearing of a bail petition filed by the ashram administrator Jubin Baby and his wife J. Maria, both hailing from Kerala, and five others. All the seven petitioners were arrested and remanded in judicial custody on February 15.

Their bail plea was dismissed by a sessions court on March 4.

The judge asked the prosecution to be very careful while dealing with such cases since severe action taken in cases without any substance mostly end up discouraging people from taking up social service.

He granted time till April 5 for the prosecution to list the individual charges against each of the seven petitioners before the court.

Earlier, the petitioners’ counsel R. Prabhakaran told the court the couple had been rehabilitating the mentally challenged destitutes for the last 25 years. The couple was residing on the same premises, from where the ashram functioned in Villupuram, along with their in-laws and four school-going children. The couple had obtained a licence from the Institute of Mental Health, fire licence, building licence, sanitary licence and other mandatory licences. An application for grant of licence by the State Mental Health Authority was pending consideration. In the meanwhile, they fell victim to false complaints of criminal activities, he claimed.

Denying the charge of having used monkeys to bite the inmates, the couple claimed their children had brought two monkeys home after their mother had died in a road accident.