Ahmedabad, March 1: The shadow of the sex-on-CD scandal miring the Swaminarayan creed fell on the Kalupur sect with two of its sadhus being arrested yesterday from Muli temple in Surendranagar district.
The crime branch of Ahmedabad police arrested Prabhu Das alias P.P. Swami and Premballav alias Kaka Swami, both 51, from the shrine affiliated to the Kalupur temple in Ahmedabad after they were identified in the controversial CDs by the women and the touts who had brought them.
The women have identified eight sadhus, three of whom have been arrested, said additional police commissioner (crime branch) D.G. Vanzara.
The arrests bring a new angle in the investigation, which has so far progressed on the line that the scandal was the result of a bitter rivalry between two groups of the Vadtal sect, another sub-sect of the Swaminarayan faith.
The Kalupur sect is not connected to the Vadtal sect.
Moreover, three touts who brought women to the sadhus and filmed them having sex told the police that they had been ?supplying? women to monks for 20 years, said Vanzara.
The arrested sadhus are among several others who appear in the ?obscene? CDs that crime branch sleuths recovered from the bungalow of the deposed acharya of the Vadtal sect, Ajendra Prasad, during a raid on February 16.
The day before, the crime branch had arrested Swami Bhakti Swaroop of the Junagadh Swaminarayan temple along with three ?touts who were paid Rs 2 lakh to film sadhus having sex?.
Vanzara said the police had identified the person who financed the CDs and ?hatched the conspiracy? and claimed all evidences pointed at the involvement of Ajendra Prasad, who has gone into hiding. The police have been saying he would be arrested soon.
Yesterday, Ajendra Prasad?s advocate I.S. Sayed appeared in court to move a bail application for Surat-based builder Nandlal Kala. Kala, who is close to Ajendra Prasad, owns the flat where the touts lured sadhus to have sex with women while they recorded the act.
Sources in the police believe that Ajendra Prasad?s advocate?s appearance for Kala ?conclusively proves the involvement of the deposed acharya??.
Sayed, they said, wanted to prepare the ground to seek anticipatory bail for Ajendra Prasad, whose arrest seems to be only a matter of time now. If the court had granted Kala bail, he would have applied for the anticipatory bail.
Crime branch sources said the police have identified and prepared a list of 30-odd sadhus to be arrested.