Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, Aug. 8: The state crime branch today arrested the self-styled spiritual leader, Santosh Raula alias Sarathi baba, on various charges.
He has been charged under sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery with the purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine), 341 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 379 (theft) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
A local court in Cuttack rejected Sarathi's bail plea and the police took him on a three-day remand from tomorrow to further probe into the allegations. He was lodged in Choudwar jail.
Sarathi has also been booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act for allegedly harassing one of his ashram employees. He faces action under the section 25 of the Arms Act for possessing two swords. By keeping swords inside the ashram, he has also invited section 7 of the Religious Institutions Prevention of Misuse Act, 1988, according to additional director-general of police (crime branch) B.K. Sharma.
The arrest came after the sleuths had grilled him for nearly 13 hours at his Barimula ashram in Kendrapara and at the crime branch headquarters in Cuttack. Sharma said the accused had been arrested on the basis of an FIR, lodged by additional superintendent of police (crime branch) Santosh Patnaik. The details of the FIR were not immediately available.
The 47-year-old accused was in the eye of a storm following reports that he had stayed with a woman at a Hyderabad hotel last month. Following a public outcry and statewide demonstrations against Sarathi's "misdemeanour", the state government had ordered a "comprehensive probe" into his activities by the crime branch.
The police have also taken up two complaints - one made by a former employee of his ashram, Kailash Mallick, and the other by Barimula residents, who had been resisting the expansion of his ashram.
During the raids, the crime branch seized 15kg of silver, 54.1 grams of gold, cash worth Rs 2.28 lakh and 55kg metal coins. It has also seized three bank accounts, Sarathi's passport and land documents pertaining to movable and immovable properties in the state.
"The investigation is likely to be complicated and a time-consuming one, because there is a need to probe various aspects that have links outside the state. The activities and financial aspects of the ashram for the past 10 to 15 years will be investigated," the crime branch chief said.
The crime branch today formed a three-member special investigation team to probe into Sarathi's alleged stay with the woman, a medical student, in Hyderabad. "We have approached Hyderabad police for closed-circuit television footage of the hotel," said a senior official.
While Sarathi has denied having visited Hyderabad, the woman in question, yesterday lodged an FIR, saying that four former employees of Sarathi, who had accompanied him during his Hyderabad trip, had blackmailed her. She has also sought police protection, apprehending danger to her life. The police have transferred her FIR to the crime branch for further probe.
However, the BJP and the Congress are not content with Sarathi's arrest. The parties have demanded arrest of former Kendrapara police superintendent Satish Gajbhiye, who has been shifted for using excessive force against the demonstrators in Kendrapara. The Congress demanded a CBI probe, expressing doubts about the impartiality of the state police. The BJP wanted the investigation to be monitored by Orissa High Court.
