Nine 'Godmen' on the wrong side of the law

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The News Minute| November 18, 2014| 10.40 pm IST

After Rampalji Maharaj unleashed the might of his “Baba’s commandos” or the Rashtriya Samaj Seva Samiti as you may prefer to call them on our security forces today, we have nine other “godmen” who have had run-ins with the law.

Raghaveshwara Bharati Swami:

He is the head seer of the Ramachandrapura Mutt, and is under investigation by the Bangalore CID. Wanted in a case where a 47 year old singer alleged that she was raped by him. The woman’s daughter put out a facebook post after which his supporters were arrested for reacting.

Atul Maharaj

Atul Shitole of Pune, raped a 17 year old in Lavasa and then blackmailed and repeatedly raped her after she had come to him for her brother’s cure.

Image Courtesy: DNA

Asaram Bapu

Accused of sexually abusing a 16 year old at his Jodhpur ashram, while her mother waited outside. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is looking in to a 700-acre land grabbing case accusing him. He was also investigated in the matter of two boys being found dead in the Sabarmati River next to his ashram.

Shivmurat Dwivedi

Courtesy: India TV

Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanandji Maharaj Chitrakootwale, 39, had more than 100 girls working for him and over Rs 60 crore amassed across ten years. As reported by the Open Magazine, he’d answer his phone with “Om Sri Sai” instead of “Hello”. It was used to distinguish between avatars for callers, the pimp, Shivmurti or Sai Bhakt Swami Bhimanand.

Swami Nithyananda

Infamous for video footage showing him in a compromising position with an actress. He was also accused by an Indian-born American citizen of rape.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

On June 25, 2008 the Dera Sacha Sauda chief’s bodyguards fired at people at a mall in Mumbai in which a man was killed. There were also allegations of him sexually assaulting his wife.

Mahendra Giri:

The 65 year old from Madhya Pradesh, also known as “Tunnu Baba” was arrested last year for illegally confining and allegedly raping a 24 year old at his ashram.

Baba Ramdev

Though not strictly a godman, the yoga guru is infamous for embracing his feminine side and donning a salwar kameez with the world’s media around him, there are many land grab against him and his organisation filed by the Uttarakhand government.

Ramaswami Devishree Guruji

Astrologer and swamy based out of Bangalore was caught in a sex scandal by TV channels and arrested in April this year. He has since been out on bail.

There are instances where you'd say people had "a brush with the law". These sent by "God" take it pretty literally.