Sex tainted godman’s bail plea rejected

BANGALORE - A Karnataka court Thursday rejected a bail plea of self-styled godman Swami Nityananda, in jail since April 30 for his alleged sex romp.

The sessions court in Ramanagara, about 40 km from here, turned down the plea in view of the “seriousness and magnitude of the charges” against him.

Nityananda, alias Rajasekaran, is facing several criminal cases relating to obscenity, criminal intimidation, rape and hurting religious sentiments.

The 32-year-old spent eight days in police custody answering questions on his alleged sex romp and other activities, before he was sent to jail April 30 by the court till May 12.

The Crime Investigation Department (CID) interrogated Nityananda on video tapes showing him in bed with two women, his bank accounts and on reports that he bound several of his followers to non-disclosure agreement about his sexual acts with them.

The CID has declined to divulge the information it has gathered from Nityananda, who had an ‘ashram’ (residential complex) on a 28-acre plot at Bidadi, about 30 km from here.

One of his devotees, Lenin Karuppanan, who also served as his driver, has claimed he had secretly filmed Nityananda in bed with two women in the complex.

Karuppanan surrendered to the Tamil Nadu police after the telecast of the video tape March 3.

Nityananda was on the run since the telecast. He was traced to Himachal Pradesh and arrested there April 22 and brought to Bangalore the next day to face trial.