7- Chandraswami
Nemi Chand Jain, alias Chandraswami, claimed to be a psychic, an astrologer and a faith healer. Chandraswami was attracted to the study of Tantra from an early age.
He left home when still young to become a student of Upadhyar Amar Muni and the tantric Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj.
He later lived in the jungles of Bihar where he spent time in meditation. He claims that after four years he obtained extraordinary powers called siddhis.
Chandraswami is Jain by religion and a believer in the goddess Maa Kali. He was known to have built a wide network of powerful friends. His knowledge of their private lives and business dealings made him one of the country's top power brokers.
The MC Jain commission report in 1998 dedicated an entire volume to his alleged involvement in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination; an income-tax raid on his ashram reportedly uncovered original drafts of payments totalling $11 million to arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi.
His foreign travel bill, before he was grounded, was reportedly estimated to be Rs 1.05 crore. The ED had registered as many as nine FERA cases and the CBI has lodged a cheating case and a case for his involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1996.
Although recently exonerated by courts, his lifestyle is often seen as epitomizing the dark side of organized religion and its flirtation with activities that render it suspect before law and society.
