The mother of a monk who had been picked up by police two months ago during a hunger strike for a clean Ganga has alleged that he is in the captivity of the BJP government in Uttarakhand “where officers are torturing him to force him to withdraw his movement”.

“I have not been able to contact my son Gopal Das for the past 11 days and have reasons to believe that his life is in danger under the Trivendra Singh Rawat government. He has been kept in confinement somewhere,” Shakuntala Devi, 62, told reporters at Triveni Ghat on the banks of the Ganga in Rishikesh on Friday.

She is on a hunger strike at Rishikesh since Wednesday to take forward the movement of her son and mount pressure on the Centre to bring back Gopal Das, 35, whom she last met on December 3 in Delhi’s AIIMS.

Gopal Das, whose movement had been gaining popular support, was picked up by the police from Matri Sadan, an ashram in Haridwar, on October 13, on the 111th day of his fast demanding that the Centre and the state government enact a law for a clean Ganga.

The Haridwar administration now claims it has no clue where Gopal Das is.

He had been admitted to AIIMS, Rishikesh, on October 13. From there he was shifted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, after a few days and then to AIIMS, New Delhi.

“On December 3 the police told us at AIIMS, New Delhi, that they were taking him back to AIIMS, Rishikesh. An unidentified caller later told me that he was thrown out of the ambulance in a village near Dehradun where some villagers who recognised him admitted him to a private hospital,” Shakuntala Devi said.

She said that she rushed to the private hospital, but was told that the police had taken him to Doon Government Medical College and Hospital.

But when Shakuntala Devi reached the Doon hospital on December 5, she was shown records that mentioned that he had “left against medical advice”.

Shakuntala Devi said she feared that her son would meet the same fate as Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand of Matri Sadan ashram.

Sanand, who taught environmental engineering at IIT Kanpur for 17 years before adopting sanyas, died at AIIMS, Rishikesh, on October 11, a day after he was forcefully admitted on the 111th day of his hunger strike for the Ganga.

Shakuntala Devi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of cheating the people “by claiming that he is a son of the Ganga”.

Modi had said before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that he was contesting from Varanasi “because Mother Ganga had called him”.

Manish Kumar Singh, the sub-divisional magistrate of Haridwar on whose orders Gopal Das was taken to AIIMS, Rishikesh, said the administration was not aware of the sadhu’s whereabouts.

“He was shifted to AIIMS, New Delhi, on October 17. We didn’t bring him back and we don’t know his current whereabouts,” Singh said.

Gopal Das was forcefully taken to AIIMS, Rishikesh, two days after the death of Sanand.

Brahmchari Atmbodhanand, another Matri Sadan seer on a hunger strike for a clean Ganga since October 24, is admitted at AIIMS, Rishikesh.

The Haridwar administration had imposed prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 at Matri Sadan after Sanand’s death.