Thiruvananthapuram, April 18: From convict to ?ascetic? to convict again.

Self-styled sanyasi Jnana Chitanya, alias P.M. Sudhakaran, has landed in police custody again after his second wife, a Britisher, accused him of keeping her in captivity and torturing her for the past year.

Police in Kottakal in Kerala?s northern Malappuram district are interrogating the 45-year-old Sudhakaran, who has six children by his first marriage and has served a life sentence for murder.

Sudhakaran had married Amanda William, 24, a law undergraduate from the UK, at the Mookambika shrine in southern Karnataka on April 14, last year.

Amanda?s father traces his roots to Calcutta four generations ago, according to lawyer Rajeev Lakshman. The father believed Sudhakaran was an avatar of Shiva ? though born a Christian, he was a devotee of Shiva.

According to the complaint, Sudhakaran had kept Amanda confined in his ashram, forcing her to have sex with him and depriving her of proper food. He also tried to stop Amanda from keeping in touch with her parents.

When Amanda decided to leave the ashram, Sudhakaran threatened to finish off her family using his tantrik powers.

The self-styled sanyasi had allegedly used a similar tactic to persuade Amanda?s father to give him her hand in marriage. Sudhakaran had apparently told him that Amanda and he were wedded to each other in their previous lives and she would turn insane if her father stood in the way of the marriage.

Amanda first met Sudhakaran in 2002 when she visited his ashram with her parents. A friend from Mumbai had told them that the ?ascetic? could help them overcome the financial problems they were facing in the UK.

After the Williams went back suitably impressed, Sudhakaran began sending emails to Amanda.

The Internet that had brought Amanda close to Sudhakaran helped her break away. Amanda sent an email to her father while Sudhakaran was away in Mumbai.

He got in touch with Lakshman and the local Arya Samaj, which bailed Amanda out.

Sudhakaran came back and filed a missing complaint with the police on the basis of which Amanda was picked up. She, however, told the magistrate that she wanted to return to her family and left for the UK with her father yesterday.

Lakshman said Sudhakaran, who was in the army, had shot wounded an officer in Bangalore before running away with his Sten gun in the early 1980s. On way to the Sabarimala shrine, he had hijacked a car and shot dead its owner and two others who intercepted him.