Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, Aug. 19: The state crime branch today brought Satyam Sekhar Raula alias Bubu, the adopted son of the self-styled spiritual leader Sarathi baba, to the state from Mumbai.
Satyam, in whose name the controversial baba has been accused of running an empire, had managed to escape from the state after the guru was taken into custody on August 8.
The 20-year-old youth, who maintained a lavish lifestyle, was staying in a hotel at Borivali in Mumbai. The crime branch team traced Satyam by tracking his mobile phone calls and ATM card use.
The team's visit to Mumbai followed the August 13 seizure of a Fortuner SUV from the parking lot of a private hospital here. The vehicle that Satyam was using had no number plates.
After being brought here in the afternoon, Satyam was driven straight to the crime branch headquarters in Cuttack, where he had been interrogated for nearly four hours.
"Satyam, the adopted son of Srimad Sarathi, is one of the main conspirators and a beneficiary in the entire financial and other assets built up by his father," said B.K. Sharma, additional director-general of police (crime branch).
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Satyam had deposited lakhs of rupees directly in different bank accounts of Srimad Sarathi on several occasions. It is believed that Sarathi had set up the controversial Satyam Charitable Trust in the name of his adopted son.
A crime branch official said Satyam came into focus after Kailash Mallick, one of the former acolytes of the self-styled spiritual leader, lodged a complaint against him alleging that Sarathi's son had snatched away his mobile phone.
The crime branch official said the evidence against Sarathi would be analysed and matched with the information shared by his son Satyam. So far, the crime branch has detected three bank accounts with deposits worth Rs 27 lakh in the name of Satyam, who also owns a flat worth Rs 2 crore in Bhubaneswar.
In a curious twist, a woman today claimed that Satyam was her son, whom she had given to Sarathi baba when the child was just two years old.
"Sarathi promised me that he would not marry and nurture the baby as his son. I had never thought that he would indulge in such activities. Because of Sarathi, my son is in trouble," she said.
In yet another development, Sarathi's close associate Pramod Mohanty, 52, whom the crime branch had earlier interrogated, died today under mysterious circumstances.
Family sources claimed that Mohanty, who was rushed to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack in a serious condition, died of a cardiac arrest.
The crime branch had interrogated Mohanty, who worked in a petrol pump, in connection with a red Toyota Etios car (OD05 K0100) that was found parked outside the Singhabahini Club at Sigmapur village near Bahugram in Jagtsinghpur district on August 16 morning. The car had been purchased for Rs 6.29 lakh in 2014 and registered in the name of one Saroj Rout, who is a relative of Mohanty and also a follower of Sarathi. The car had been missing from Sarathi's Barimula ashram since the night of August 6.
