Tamil Nadu ashram case | Delivered unto evil

Anbu Jothi Ashram functioned without licence and violated rules to take in mentally challenged, persons with disabilities and destitutes. Many of those who were said to have been shifted to other homes are missing. Notices have been issued to 16 mental health homes in Tamil Nadu for functioning without licence after the revelations

The rooms are dark and dingy and a revolting stink emanates from the heaps of soiled clothes, dirty bed-sheets and torn linen on the windows and doors of the desolate three-storey building of Anbu Jothi Ashram for mentally ill and destitute persons at Kundalapuliyur near Vikravandi in Villupuram district. The Ashram, sited off the Villupuram-Gingee Highway, is the only concrete structure in the locality among the swathes of parched field and isolated houses. The unlicensed home for the mentally challenged and destitute people was shut down after government authorities raided the premises following reports of torture, rape and suspected human trafficking.

For the past week, the home has been witnessing a flurry of activity. The police, Revenue Department officials and the media have been visiting the Ashram. Anbu Jothi Ashram functioned illegally for about 17 years, escaping the attention of the district authorities and the local police. A habeas corpus petition before the Madras High Court brought the macabre happenings to light. The Ashram’s two branches at Vikravandi and Chinna Mudaliyar Chavady, near Puducherry, were shut down and 166 residents, including 45 women, were rescued and admitted to the Government Villupuram Medical College and Hospital.

As more complaints came in, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police on February 18. Nine persons — including Ashram owner Jubin Baby, 45, his wife Maria, 43, of Kerala, and their associates — were arrested on the charges of rape and assault, among other offences.

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Muthulakshmi, who owns the farmland next to the building, said the locals did not know what was going on within the confines of the Ashram. “My family had arguments with the Ashram staff for letting out sewage into the farmland. Though we had taken up the issue with them, they rarely paid attention. We moved to a house close to the main road, unable to bear with the stench,” she said. “I have witnessed people being taken in and out in vehicles from the building. The inmates would be seen at noon, during lunch, outside the building. On several occasions, while working in my farmland, I used to hear the shrieks of residents from the rooms. The screams would end after some time and I would resume my work,” Muthulakshmi said.

Mani, 60, a farmer of Kundalapuliyur, said, “Though over 20 persons from the village worked as load men at the Food Corporation of India godown across the road, we did not find anything suspicious. We learnt about the shocking developments only through media reports that emerged soon after the raid.”

According to M. Malaiappan, Director, Institute of Mental Health, “The Tamil Nadu State Mental Health Authority had returned Anbu Jothi Ashram’s first application for a licence in September 2022. The application was returned as the Ashram lacked adequate staff, including doctors, nurses and hospital workers. We marked out the deficiencies and returned the application, advising the Ashram to rectify them. We also wrote to them and called them up several times to rectify the deficiencies. But they failed to respond.”