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Regular-article-logo Tuesday, 01 July 2025

Last nail in sex swami coffin

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OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT Published 05.04.05, 12:00 AM

New Delhi, April 5: Swami Premananda?s fate has been sealed after a double confirmation of his ?double life term? spanning 28 years.

The Supreme Court today upheld the Madras High Court?s affirmation of the conviction and two life terms (14 years a term) that a trial court had sentenced him to.

Of late, godmen in India have been in trouble, like in Gujarat where sadhus of two sects were arrested after being caught on camera having sex.

In the case of Premananda ? the Sri Lankan Tamil masquerading as a saint at Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu ? the trial court had in August 1997 convicted him of raping 13 women and murdering a person at his ashram in Tiruchirappalli, and sentenced him to two life terms and also imposed a fine of Rs 66 lakh.

Premananda paid the fine during the pendency of his appeal before Madras High Court, which in December 2002 confirmed the conviction and sentence.

On another appeal, the apex court division bench of Justices B.N. Agarwal and H.K. Sema confirmed the high court?s judgment.

?We do not find any infirmity in the order passed by the high court and it does not call for any interference,? the bench said, affirming that the trial court and the high court were correct in convicting the accused.

The Supreme Court added that ?any remission of sentence announced either by the central or the state government (for prisoners) would not apply to him (Premananda)? after ?having regard to the gravity of offence and the deleterious effect it had not only on the victims but also on the society at large?.

Premananda?s escapades had been exposed by a group of women who complained to the local police.

The women were initially afraid of speaking out against his sexual misdeeds. Money and property, too, were involved.

Agitations by various women?s groups in the district forced the police to investigate the charges, leading to the discovery of a skeleton and a skull buried in the ashram.

The prosecution?s case was that the Sri Lankan sneaked into Tamil Nadu, along with Tamil refugees caught in the island nation?s ethnic struggle, and established the ashram in Tiruchirappalli.

He particularly lured women ?devotees? and used them for various purposes, including entertaining some local VIPs, the prosecution said.

The charge of raping 13 women was ?conclusively proved? against him as also that of the murder of Ravi, an ashram inmate.

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