He surrendered even as police conducted searches at his Bidadi ashram
In an unexpected development on Wednesday afternoon, the Ramanagaram police arrested self-styled godman Nithyananda when he appeared in the Ramanagaram Judicial Magistrate First Class court even as the police continued searches at his ashram in Bidadi, near here.
The police arrested him after the Judge, Komala, instructed him to come to the court on Thursday as procedures had to be observed. Since a search warrant had been issued against the accused, the police arrested him following directions from the court.
A team led by Ramanagaram Superintendent of Police Anupam Agarwal arrested the godman on the charge of assaulting a journalist and took him to an undisclosed place under tight police security for further investigation. Mr. Agarwal said that Nithyananda had come to the court to surrender.
‘Searches will continue’
Even though the godman was arrested, the police continued to search Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam. “We may have arrested the accused, but we cannot suspend the search operation until we receive an order from the Karnataka government,” a top official of the district administration told The Hindu.
Earlier, Nithyananda, who was believed to have taken shelter in Tamil Nadu, arrived in a Kerala State-registered car.
In Bangalore, Vishwa Hindu Parishad Bangalore unit president Vijay Kumar Reddy alleged that there was a conspiracy behind allegations of sexual harassment against Nithyananda and said unseen hands were working against him. He, however, failed to answer a number of queries posed to him on the activities of Nithyananda.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday asked the State government to file its response, without being guided by media reports, to petitions filed by Nithyananda seeking quashing of the First Information Report registered against him in connection with the incident that occurred at his ashram in Bidadi.
Justice Subash B. Adi made these oral observations during hearing of the petitions when the prosecution sought time to file its response to Nithyananda's petition. Further, hearing on the petition has been adjourned till Friday.
The Kamraj National Congress has urged Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda to review the government's action against Nithyananda.
In a press release, party president M.S. Rajendran has questioned the government's right to indulge in such acts and has said that human rights groups will not tolerate the manner in which the inmates of the ashram were driven out.
Keywords: Nithyananda ashram, Nithyananda arrest, Nithyananda case, controversial Godman, Karnataka police
..'outrage'!!!
I can only awe at the foolishness of the ashramites. Do they still
believe in him? when will you realize that GODly men don't lust with
film actress? Do GODly men lie??? Your lives are worth more than
following someone like thz self-styled fraud. WAKE UP and get out of
that place.
Nityananda is not a Swami. He behaves differently. He should be dealt with sternly if he had committed any wrong. He is unfit to be the glorious Madurai Adheenam.He is jumping too much. Many men and women are being misguided by him. He should be tamed.He is no longer preaching religion.He ceased to be a friend philosopher and guide.Money with him causing havoc with him.
Why is there slow progress on earlier charge sheet on Nityananda? It is reported that even after 18 months of charge sheeting, proceedings have not started yet? Is this true? If so, why?
It is high time government should keep watch on all the ashrams and mutts run by this so called swamis through out the country which have become centre of controversies one reason or other. The funds used in these ashrams runs into crores. People are totally in dark about the activities of these ashrams.Lot of illegal activities are carried in the name of religion.Central government can think of enacting some laws to regulate their functions and subject them also to social audit.
It is time people wake up to this hijacking of Hinduism by politicians and gurus. These
gurus are purveyors of ignorance, salesmen and women of phony love to the lonely and
gullible.
I applaud this "swami" for being a constant source of entertainment for the public. Please continue doing so from behind the bars.
It is an outrage that the systemic corruption in the media and the Karnataka State government renders it so impotent that it cannot protect the civil rights of the inmates of an ashram that has been stormed and trespassed and vandalized. To add insult to injury, the inmates of the ashram are further victimized and villified for responding in self-defense since no police support was to be had against militant intruders.
Why should one follow these self-made god men? Scriptures may at times be very difficult to translate but that does not need these so called god-men to interpret for the needy. The same text has been written in simple and manageable languages for the masses. Who else can be a guru than these so called god-men?, to answer this question we need not think too much, we have our great parents, our great friends, our great school and college teachers, they can help us guide us to righteousness definitely! We have seen multitudes of these so called self-made god-men come and go; we as people should be aware of these types.
Why is it that Nithyananda ashramites, who were assaulted, abused and
molested by a mob of 50 people, not given a chance to even make their
grievances public? The press meet held by them was disrupted by anti-
social elements who once again assaulted them in full public view.
This is a violation of our basic right to freedom of expression.
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