A Christian home for the “mentally unstable” in Tamil Nadu has been caught indulging in all kinds of illegal activities. Rescued inmates of the home have revealed that they were physically, mentally tortured, starved and raped by the employees and those running it. The Christian couple let monkeys loose on the inmates to keep them in check. It is suspected that they could be involved in organ harvest.
A Christian institution in Villupuram, TN, with a seemingly Hindu name Anbu Jothi Ashram was found torturing mentally challenged individuals in the name of providing care to them. One Salim Khan admitted his uncle Zafarullah to the institution in 2021. Then he left for the USA and returned after a year. When he went to see his uncle in the institution, he was shocked to find him missing.
He filed a habeas corpus petition in Madras High Court to find his uncle. The court directed Villupuram police to find Zafarullah. When police went to find him and inspect the ‘ashram’ along with a medical team, employees unleashed the two monkeys raised by the Christian couple running it. Many were severely injured and were taken to hospital after first aid.
When they went with precautions again, they found inmates lodged in jail-like rooms with different stages of injuries. The inmates were reportedly drugged and raped when they were unconscious. Two Uttar Bharatiya women residing at the ‘home’ have told the Women’s Commission team about the drugging and raping. They said those who didn’t cooperate were locked inside a dark room.
The inmates were beaten with rods, pipes, etc and employees used the two monkeys to terrorise them. After the inspection, the inmates were sent to other homes and the injured were admitted to hospitals. Following these revelations, many have come forward with complaints that their relatives admitted to the institution are missing. During the raid, police found that Jubin runs more such institutions in TN, Kerala, Karnataka and Rajasthan. Inmates of the Villupuram home were sent to other institutions for reasons unknown.
Police found records that 15 inmates were sent to the home in Bengaluru, but they could not be found there. It is alleged that they broke a bathroom window and escaped. A 33-year-old woman from Ulundurpet in Villupuram was admitted to the home. She recovered in a few months and married a man lodged there who had also recovered.
Jubin and his wife Maria were away visiting the Rajasthan home then. The woman told TOI that Maria snatched her mangal sutra when they returned and came to know about the marriage. The man was kept at the home in Kottakuppam near Puducherry and the woman was sent to the one in Villupuram. Inmates of Kottakuppam home also have revealed their ordeal of going through physical torture and rape.
Jubin Baby and his wife Maria are natives of Ernakulam in Kerala. Jubin reportedly worked with a private ‘home’ in his early years and founded the Villupuram home in 2005 with 12 inmates. It was run from a small rented house in the initial stages and later developed into a full-blown facility with grill gates and windows to which inmates were chained and tortured. Jubin reportedly paid agents who brought destitute, mentally ill and poor people to him. They applied for a license a few years ago but it was rejected as they didn’t have enough employees, a medical team, counselors, etc.
Authorities rejected the application in 2022 as they didn’t have proper documents to show the identity of inmates, lacked a sanitation certificate and had no plan for a proper diet. The so-called home has been freely operating without a valid license for the past 17 years. Jubin was earlier arrested for locking up perfectly healthy people, both physically and mentally, in one such ‘home’ in Coimbatore. Along with a few other ‘human rights activists’, he picked up random people from the streets, bus stands, and railway stations and branded them as mentally ill.
They were forcibly tonsured, their clothes changed, their possessions snatched away and made to pose like mentally ill people and locked up in a house. Locals heard their cries of anguish and informed relevant authorities. Only during the inspection was it revealed that everyone in that building was being held against their will and physically abused.
Anbu Jothi Ashram’s YouTube channel has posted videos of burying people. Reports say that fake documents of police authorising such burials are what led to prove further into the home’s operations. It is feared that Jubin and his wife could have been into illegal organ harvesting and trade. In 2018, St Joseph’s Hospice in Kanchipuram and elsewhere were found to have buried ‘destitute’ people in concrete vaults built inside its premises without proper documentation.
The incident garnered much media attention but the Catholic bishops came to the rescue of Fr.Thomas, the institution’s founder. Even though discrepancies were found and the hospice sealed at the time it started functioning again due to the church’s clout and corrupt officials. In October 2022, it was again in the news when it was discovered that the inmates complained of starvation and physical abuse.
As such incidents are becoming frequent, many have demanded CBI inquiry into the current issue. DGP Sailendra Babu ordered the case to be transferred to CB-CID. Jubin, his wife Maria and 6 others have been booked and police have arrested 4. Madras HC has sought a status report of the case. Meanwhile, as the DMK government has a history of defending Christians in such matters, TN BJP President K Annamalai has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking to direct CBI to take over the case.