Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 5

A Nawanshahr court has sentenced Swami Sachidanand, a self-styled godman, to life sentence for the murder of Kavita Rani, a resident of Shiv Nagar Mohalla, seven years ago.

The swami, alias Satinder Kumar, was earlier a patwari before donning the saintly attire and beginning to deliver spiritual programmes on TV channels. In December 2009, Kavita was found strangulated with a scarf at her house with the entire house in a mess. While the case had been originally lodged against unknown persons, the cops later found that Kavita, a follower of Swami, had been demanding back cash worth few lakhs and jewellery from him, which she had donated to him gullibly. At this, Swami reportedly hatched a plot to eliminate her. The police had arrested him in 2014. While he is a PO in one case, there are other cases too against him in Patiala and Gurdaspur.