Send ‘child saint’ to school, rules Andhra rights panel

HYDERABAD - Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Monday ordered that ‘child saint’ Sambhavi, who claims to be a childhood friend of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in her previous life, should go to school.

Delivering its verdict on petitions filed by a group of rationalists and human rights activists, SHRC Chairman Subhashan Reddy directed the collector of Kurnool district to enrol her in a school within a week.

He said the girl should have all the rights of a child and the parents should not claim that she is a ‘child saint’. The panel noted that Sambhavi’s parents themselves claimed the girl possessed “supernatural” powers.

“Whoever may be the parents, they can’t do whatever they want with their child,” Reddy said.

Ruling that Sambhavi is a 14-year-old, the Commission said that the authorities should make arrangements to enrol her in a school.

Sambhavi had attracted people’s attention last year by claiming to be the Dalai Lama’s disciple in her previous life. She also predicted that Tibet would get independence in 2012.

After her claims, people started thronging an old temple at Suryanandi in Kurnool district for her “darshan”.

For the last one year, the child had been at the centre of a row between Usha Rani, her caretaker, and rationalists and human rights activists who were demanding that the child be sent to school.

They alleged that her ‘caretaker’ and some others with vested interests were exploiting her childhood and demanded her release from their ‘illegal detention’.

Rani gave a new twist to the case in December last year by revealing that she was the mother of the girl. She also revealed that after the death of her first husband in Guntur district, she had gone to an “ashram” in Varanasi, where she married yoga teacher Saumya Acharya. She claimed Sambhavi was born at Tirupati in 2002.