Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Hindu and Hindu-derived contexts Gaya, Bihar, India · 2025

India: 'Baba' convicted under POCSO for raping a girl he had drawn into temple worship visits

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

a self-styled religious guide known as 'Baba' who had built trust with the victim's family through temple worship visits

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The perpetrator had spent weeks building religious credibility with the victim's mother through supervised temple-worship outings before using that same pretext — a further act of worship — to isolate and rape the victim; the abuse was only possible because the family had already ceded religious authority over her movements to him.

  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
  • Ritual, oath, or initiation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-11-01 · trial conviction affirmed on appeal

    India — Additional District & Sessions Judge (POCSO), Gaya, Bihar; appeal at Patna High Court. Mohan Mishra, alias 'Baba', alias Pyara Mohan Mishra, was convicted under Sections 4, 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act and Section 376/34 IPC for raping a minor on 31 July 2020 after luring her from her home under the pretext of worship at Shitla Mata Temple near Vishnupad and taking her instead to a hotel. The Patna High Court, in Cr. App (DB) No. 443 of 2023 decided 1 November 2025, held the victim's testimony consistent, natural and requiring no further corroboration, and dismissed the appeal, affirming the conviction.

Appellate history

  1. 2025-11-01 · Patna High Court

    Appeal dismissed; conviction and sentence affirmed.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • a pattern of prior supervised temple visits (Mangla Gauri Temple, then Shitla Mata Temple near Vishnupad) undertaken with the mother's consent to build religious trust
  • use of that established religious-guidance relationship to isolate the victim under the pretext of a further act of worship, then take her to a hotel and rape her

Primary record

Sources

court record appellate affirmance Mohan Mishra @ Baba @ Pyara Mohan Mishra vs The State Of Bihar, Patna High Court, Cr. App (DB) No. 443 of 2023, decided 1 November 2025.

Patna High Court's affirmance of the POCSO conviction, summarizing the temple-pretext facts and the victim's testimony.

Related record

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