Bangalore police says, tainted spiritual guru Swami Nithyananda has been lodged in a women's cell in Ramanagaram jail to keep him safe from possible attack by other prisoners, reports Mirror.
Swami Nithyananda's ingenuous attempt by claiming that he is not a ‘man' and therefore cannot be accused of having sex with women has cut no ice with the police.
Instead of subjecting the Swami to a ‘potency' test as he had wanted, they packed him off to a cell meant for women at the Ramanagaram district jail on Friday after a magistrate remanded him to judicial custody.
Sharing the cell with him is his follower Nithya Bhaktananda, who was sent to the jail on April 22. The cell is being closely guarded as the Swami is considered a high-risk prisoner.
The CID's custody of the Swami, in connection with two FIRs registered against him, came to an end on Friday afternoon after he was produced before the magistrate in Ramanagaram.
The Swami pleaded with the magistrate to direct the jail authorities to allow him to conduct ‘dhyana', ‘pooja' and other rituals in the jail premises.
He also wanted ‘sattvik' food supplied to him from his ashram near Bidadi. The court allowed him these ‘comforts' by issuing a direction to the jail authorities.
“We opted for the women's cell because of its location. Some prisoners in the jail are known to be hostile to the Swami and there is a chance of him being attacked. So we scouted for a safe place within the jail and it happened to be the women's cell,” a senior jail staffer said.
Nithyananda has been remanded to judicial custody till May 12, and his bail application will come up for hearing on Monday.
Meanwhile, a fast track court in Ramanagaram, which is hearing a case pertaining to the storage of illegal sandalwood in his ashram, granted him bail in the case.
There is also a possibility of the Tamil Nadu police taking him into custody, with the permission of the court, in connection with a non-bailable arrest warrant issued by a court in Sriperumbudur.
Meanwhile, the CID sleuths are expecting Tamil film actress Ranjitha, allegedly shown in the Nithyananda ‘sex tape', to appear before them and depose. Ranjitha is learned to have conveyed her willingness to do so to the CID sleuths through her mother, sources said.
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