CID Investigates Further

CID digs into Swami’s fund sources
Chandan Nandy, Apr 7, Bangalore:

After raiding the Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam on Monday, the State Crime Investigation Department (CID) is prepared to enlarge the scope of its investigation into the godman’s sex scandal and associated alleged offences.


According to top state government sources, the raids and enquiries elsewhere have yielded some vital clues related to the Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam’s financial resources and the manner in which land was procured by virtue of “gift deeds” that had the godman as the sole owner of nearly 22 acres of land in Bidadi over which his ashram was built.

The second angle of the CID enquiry relates to singling out some of the ashramites, those who continue to remain at the sprawling Bidadi ashram, as well devotees who have altogether quit the cult organisation.

‘Guru Droha’
“Some of the ashramites have given their statements to the police, but none of them are cooperating or prepared to divulge details of what went on in the ashram. It seems they believe saying anything their guru would amount to ‘guru droha’,” an official said.
Sources said that the objective is to get to the bottom of allegations of sex with ashramites of both genders, a point that is part of Lenin Karuppan’s original and supplementary statements made before CID sleuths.
In his statement, Lenin, who exposed the video in which Nithyananda is shown having sex with a Tamil actress, is believed to have named a person whose ashramite name begins with the alphabet V.

Since the raids on Monday, CID sleuths are busy poring through several documents and registers they seized from the ashram premises where they have so far been examined and recorded the statements of over 30 ashramites, including brahmacharis and brahmacharinis who are believed to have access to Nithyananda’s bedroom.
The CID team is believed to have recovered some interesting items from Nithyananda’s bedroom.

Among these are no less than 120 saffron robes and several sets of feminine dresses, including sarees and female jewellery which the godman used to attire and adorn himself in during special occasions.

After confirming with several inner-circle ashramites the precise utility of the feminine dresses, the CID sleuths have come to conclude that Nithyananda was a transvestite or a cross-dresser -- person who assumes the dress and manner usually associated with the opposite sex.

Sources revealed that Nithyananda would drape himself in ‘kanjeevaram’ sarees -- complete with blouses and petticoats -- and adorn himself with feminine jewellery on Durgashtami or Navratri as part of what was known among his devotees as “devi darshan”. A number of imitation ornaments and sarees have been seized by the CID sleuths.

He would also present himself, dressed a woman, on Mother’s Day during celebrations culminating in his birthday, which in some official documents and his biography, is recorded as January 1, 1978 (His passport carries his birth date as March 13, 1977). But such “darshan” was allowed only to those devotees who had attended and gone through three levels of the so-called “healing-spiritual-tantra” courses.
DH News Service