Delhi Police has arrested an infamous guru named Ichchadhari Bheemanand on the charges of running a sex racket and cheating. Ichchadhari means someone who can change form and appearance at will.

A woman had filed an FIR against Bheemanand accusing him of cheating Rs 30 lakh from her and promising her a job in return. The crime branch of Delhi Police has handed him over to Amar Colony police station.

A woman from Rohini had lodged a complaint at Amar Colony police station stating that a person by the name of Shiva and another woman, by the name of Kankana, had duped her of Rs 30 lakh on the pretext of employment to her and two siblings in a government job with IRCTC. A case was registered at the police station.

It was found during investigation that Shiva, who lived in East of Kailash, was actually the notorious Ichchadhari Baba, who was earlier involved in running high-profile sex rackets and booked under MCOCA in Saket police station.

The accused was apprehended and interrogated. Shiva admitted to his guilt and disclosed that after coming out of jail on bail, he earned his bread and butter by cheating innocent and unemployed youths with the help of a Kankana Deb. Kankana Deb has also been arrested.

WHO IS ICHCHADHARI BHEEMANAND?

Shiv Murat Dwivedi or Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bheemanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale - as he is known among his followers - is a spiritual teacher by day and a pimp by night. This is not the first time he has been arrested for running a sex racket. In 1997, he was first arrested in Lajpat Nagar for running a prostitution racket, but was released on bail. After release from jail, he changed his track and called himself a disciple of Sai Baba.

In the past 12 years, Bheemanand is believed to have accumulated assets over several crores.

2010 CASE

Bheemanand amassed a fortune by peddling sex and spiritualism till his luck ran out in 2010. A former security guard, Dwivedi was arrested along with two air hostesses, a management graduate and a Delhi University student, in a sex racket bust up from an up-market area in South Delhi.

The South District Police arrested eight people, including six high-profile call girls, from the Saket area when they were approaching a five-star hotel to strike a deal with a prospective client. Among the women arrested include a 22-year-old MBA student and a 19-year-old DU student.

Two air hostesses were also held.

"All of them (the women) had a comfortable life and lived in sprawling homes in South Delhi. They were in this profession of their own accord to live a good life," DCP (South) H.G.S. Dhaliwal said.

Dwivedi had recently built a 200-bed hospital and a temple and had released several CDs of his teachings in Chitrakoot.

"Dwivedi said he got the idea of turning into a pimp while working as a security guard at a five-star hotel. He later left his job and started working in a Lajpat Nagar massage parlour from where he was arrested in 1997 on charges of pimping," Dhaliwal said.

HOW HE BECAME A BABA

Realising he was in the bad books of the police, Dwivedi decided to metamorphose into a spiritual teacher.

He reinvented himself as a disciple of Sai Baba, and began operating outside a temple in Badarpur area of South Delhi.

As his following increased, he started holding frequent gatherings. It was then that he started luring girls from respected families who came to hear his teachings. "Those whom he found willing were taken into the gang, which supplied women to rich people, including many who were his disciples," the police said.

Saket SHO Pankaj Singh used members of his team to trap Dwivedi. The undercover agents posed as clients and busted the racket. Police said Dwivedi's gang charged between Rs 10,000 to 40,000 on a daily or at times even on hourly basis.

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