HC grants anticipatory bail to inmate of Nithyananda ashram

Published: Friday, Jul 20, 2012, 22:15 IST Place: Chennai | Agency: PTI

The Madras High Court today granted anticipatory bail to a former inmate of Swami Nithyananda’s Ashram, who feared arrest in a case for alleged offences, including cheating and criminal intimidation. Petitioner Arathi Rao said she feared arrest in the case which had been registered in 2011. The charge against her was that she surreptitiously took a video of the controversial godman with an actress and blackmailed him. Granting her bail, Justice MM Sundresh said she should execute a bond for Rs10,000 and furnish two sureties for a like sum to satisfaction of the XI Metropolitan Magistrate. She has also been told to deposit her passport with police and not leave the country without the court’s permission. Nithyananda is facing a CID probe into allegations of rape and criminal intimidation levelled against him in 2010 after some TV channels telecast purported video footage of the self-styled godman in a compromising position with an actress. Out on bail after his arrest in 2010, he had courted fresh trouble on June 8 when police booked him and his followers for allegedly assaulting a mediaperson during a press conference at his ashram at nearby Bidadi. The press meet was held in the backdrop of a US-based woman alleging that he had sexually abused her for five years. Nithyananda was granted bail on June 15, a day after his re-arrest on charges of disturbing peace and lodged in Mysore Central Prison.   http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_hc-grants-anticipatory-bail-to-inmate-of-nithyananda-ashram_1717766