NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, FEB 7
A day after the Karnataka High Court cancelled the bail granted to Nithyananda in the 2010 rape case, a court in Ahmedabad on Friday granted conditional bail to two disciples of absconding godman Nithyananda. The two disciples have been accused of forcefully confining children, beating them and abusing them. The children were allegedly assaulted and forced to take up physical labour at Nithyananda’s Ahmedabad ashram – Sarvagyapeetham.
The two disciples have been identified as Harini Chelappan alias Pranpriya and Riddhi Ravikiran alias Priyatatva. The two disciples have been let off on a furnishing bail bond of Rs 25,000 each.
On Friday, a sessions court directed the two sadhvis to deposit their passports. The court also stated that the two disciples will not be allowed to leave Ahmedabad without seeking prior permission from the court. The two sadhvis were arrested in November last year.
On January 17, the Gujarat Police filed a charge sheet against the two accused. As per the charge sheet, the two accused have been booked under section 365, 344, 323, 504, 506(2) and 114 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 14 of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was also mentioned in the charge sheet.
This development came to light one day after the Karnataka High Court cancelled the bail granted to Nithyananda in the 2010 rape case. The order was given by Justice John Micheal D Cunha. The bail was cancelled after one Kuruppan Lenin filed a petition in the court.
The court observed that the self-styled godman had been misleading the court into believing that he was working towards spreading Hinduism. Lenin filed a petition in court after a controversial video of Nithyananda surfaced on social media. In the video, Nithyananda and a Tamil actress were spotted in a compromising position.
The Gujarat Police have confirmed that Nithyananda has fled the country. The Interpol has also issued a Blue Corner Notice to locate the absconding self-styled godman.
