Absconding Sakshi Maharaj surfaces in new residence

“The girl, who was once my chand ka tukda, for whom I willed a fourth of my property and who I went out of my way to promote as principal of the girls college I started in Etah, turned against me after being instigated by the BJP activists in Etah,” he said.

He said that he had gone into hiding after he came to know that a FIR had been lodged against him in Etah on rape-charges on August 31 and that the superintendent of police there had turned against him.

Asked why he chose to adopt Durga Devi rather than anyone else, he said that she came to him asking for his help. “Srimati Durga Devi Sharma had left her husband and had been telling her parents that she wanted to renounce the world. So her brother brought her to me asking me to show her the way,” Sakhsi said.

He said that he had initially asked the family to take her to a women’s ashram in Bihar but later decided to adopt her and make her the principal of the school he was starting in Etah.

Asked why she could have turned against him, he said that she had political ambitions and had been instigated by the BJP supporters there.

Detailing the events leading to the rape-charges, he said that he had always advised her to get married and had even tried to work out an agreement between her and her former husband. “But on August 27, she eloped with a servant (a computer-instructor) I had employed in the college,” he said.

He said that he could not bear the humiliation and he immediately removed her from the post of principal. “When she protested against this, I said that he had to take such a step to save his reputation and that of the college.” She had retaliated with these charges, he said.

He said that he would never forgive her and would never again take her back as his daughter. He said that he would also change his will and take back the office-car he had given her.

He said that Mulayam Singh Yadav had spoken to the Prime Minister and Home Minister, but no one was willing to listen to the truth. No one was willing to order a CBI inquiry, he said.

He accused the BJP Government of supporting a conspiracy to eliminate him by removing all the security-cover he had. He said that Home Minister L K Advani had demanded security for him when he was in the BJP. But now that I have joined Samajwadi Party, I am a rapist, a murderer, a gangster and someone not fit to be alive, he said.

He challenged Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee or any one in the BJP to face him in elections in Farukkabad. “They are trying to get me behind bars so that I am not able to stand in the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh. Several attempts have been made on my life and false cases have been lodged against me and the purpose behind all this is transparent,” Sakshi said.