Nithyananda arrested
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Godman nabbed from his HP hideout; to be flown in today
CHANDIGARH: Nearly two months after being in hiding following the expose of his sex romp with a Tamil actress in his Bidadi ashram near Bangalore, self-styled godman Nithyananda was arrested in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh along with four other associates on Wednesday afternoon.
Nithyananda’s hideout in Shivshankargarh village under Arki police station was busted in a meticulously planned joint operation by a Karnataka-Himachal Pradesh CID team. The sleuths seized Rs 3 lakh and $7,000 in cash, three laptops, three video cameras, seven cell phone handsets, five SIM cards and a host of documents from the house in which the four were holed up for over a month.
The four associates of Nithyananda have been identified as Gopal Sheelum Reddy, alias Bhaktananda, who heads Nithyananda’s so-called spiritual and healing foundations in the US, Nithyananda, Arpit Sangil, who briefly headed the godman’s Singapore ashram, and Arun Raj.
In another blow to Nithyananda, the godman’s anticipatory bail was rejected by the Ramanagara district court near Bangalore. In the case Nithyananda filed in the Karnataka High Court, seeking quahing of investigations against him, the single judge bench of Justice Arali Nagaraj directed the police to submit all records in respect of the arrest and status of the probe.
Two days back, a Sriperumbudur court near Chennai had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Nithyananda.
Vital clues on the godman’s whereabouts came from a cell phone number whose SIM card originated in an UP town. His precise location was detected near Sayri and Mamlig cell phone towers which indicated the movement of the accused persons in Mamlig panchayat.
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Deccan Herald_Apr 22 2010_Pg 1_Nithyananda arrested