New Delhi: Officials have removed 400 people from the Polygamist Ranch, set up by jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, in a semi-arid area 120 miles northwest of San Antonio, a city of south central Texas.
Scores of women and children have also reportedly been removed from or left the compound owned by the secretive sect.
Spokesperson with the Department of Public Safety, Lisa Block reported that one person had been arrested at the compound for "interfering with the duties of a public servant" but no one has yet been arrested on charges related to the abuse probe.
Texas Child Protective Services and law enforcement officials raided the compound late last week in response to a complaint of abuse by a young woman there, but they haven’t yet identified the woman who lodged the complaints. Officials say that she may be among the people who have already been taken from the ranch.
According to the local media reports, over 400 have been removed so far. The removed people were bused out of Eldorado, nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio, but other law enforcement officials are still searching for more children and evidence at the 1,700-acre compound, the former site of an exotic game ranch.
Polygamy is illegal everywhere in the United States but the male followers of such sects typically marry one woman officially and take the others as "spiritual wives."
In November, Warren Jeffs, the sect's controversial spiritual leader and self-proclaimed prophet was sentenced in a Utah court to 10 years to life in prison as an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old first cousin. He is presently in jail in Arizona awaiting trial on similar charges for arranged marriages there.
(With agency inputs)
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