Police Arrest 3 In Cult Tied To Subway Attack Men Suspected Of Keeping Members From Leaving Cult; Extorting Relatives

Police on Saturday arrested a doctor suspected of beating and drugging a woman who tried to leave the religious sect linked to the Tokyo subway attack.

Two senior members of the cult also were arrested after they allegedly attacked a policeman, Kyodo News Service reported.

Dr. Ikuo Hayashi, the top doctor at a cult-affiliated hospital, was arrested on suspicion of illegally confining a 23-year-old woman from December, when she asked to leave the group, until March 22, when police began raiding cult compounds.

Kyodo reported the woman was beaten and anesthetized at the cult’s Mount Fuji complex.

Police earlier arrested three other doctors at the small Tokyo hospital run by the cult, called Aum Shinri Kyo, or Supreme Truth.

In raids on cult properties across Japan, police have hauled away truckloads of chemical lab equipment, medical gear, gas masks and tons of chemicals that appear to include the ingredients for sarin and its antidotes.

Sarin was the gas used in the March 20 attack on the Tokyo subway which killed 11 people and sickened thousands.

No one has been arrested in the subway attack or the shooting of the national police chief, who had been overseeing the cult investigation.

The cult denies any link to either crime. Members say the chemicals found in their facilities were for manufacturing pesticides, plastics and computer parts.

On Thursday, two cult leaders were arrested after refusing to cooperate when police tried to question them, Kyodo said.

One was identified as 30-year-old Shinichi Koshikawa. Kyodo said he is under investigation in connection with the February abduction of a man the cult allegedly was trying to shake down for $240,000 in exchange for allowing his sister to leave the cult. Koshikawa heads two companies owned by the cult.

The other person arrested was not identified. Police refused to comment.

Police are searching for the cult’s charismatic leader, Shoko Asahara, whom they want to question on suspicion of having prepared sarin.