Chaitanyananda Saraswati
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Sunday sent Partha Sarthy alias Chaityananda Saraswati to five-day police custody in the case of the “molestation of a female student”.Chaityananda Saraswati is accused of allegedly molesting female students pursuing PGDM courses under the EWS scholarship and forgery.Chaitanyananda was apprehended from a hotel in Agra on Saturday night in connection with an alleged sexual harassment case involving female students at the Sri Sharda Institute of Indian Management. He is scheduled to be produced in court on Sunday. Bharat, the receptionist at the Agra hotel where Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati was detained, said he had arrived around 4pm on Saturday and that no one visited him during his stay.Bharat said, “Baba came here at 4 pm yesterday. Our female staff member who stays here at night, got his entry and registration done. No one came to meet him that day. At night around 3:30am, two policemen came who identified themselves as Inspectors of the Delhi Crime Branch. The two talked to Baba in his room for 10 minutes and took him away. Baba told us his name as Partha Sarthy.”
Police allege the 62-year-old former chairman of a Delhi management institute exploited students from economically weaker sections (EWS) by confiscating their mobile phones and academic certificates, leaving them unable to complain. “He marked students first and asked them to deposit their phones so they could focus on studies, ” a friend of one of the victims told PTI. “This created a sense of fear, as every student’s career was locked there.”ALSO READ | Delhi molestation case: Police recover fake UN, BRICS visiting cards from ‘godman’ Swami Chaitanyananda
Bail plea rejected
On Friday, a Delhi court dismissed Saraswati’s anticipatory bail plea in a case of cheating, forgery and conspiracy.Additional sessions judge Hardeep Kaur said custodial interrogation was necessary to establish the “entire chain of fraud” and noted that the accused was not traceable.Court documents describe how Saraswati allegedly created a fraudulent trust to divert funds and properties belonging to Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management Research and a Sringeri-based religious body.Financial irregularitiesInvestigators said Saraswati opened multiple bank accounts using different names and withdrew over Rs 50 lakh after an FIR was filed against him in August. Police are examining the trail of transactions linked to the alleged misappropriation of funds.
Pattern of intimidation
Complainants told police that Saraswati and his aides threatened students with expulsion or failure if they resisted his advances. “Girls were frequently warned that their careers would be destroyed if they opposed him,” one victim’s friend alleged.The first complaint was lodged in March by a student under the EWS quota, who said she was asked to pay an additional Rs 60,000 or work at the institute without salary.Later, an Indian Air Force officer reported that several women disclosed incidents of harassment during a virtual meeting.Police say further victims are now coming forward as the investigation expands.ALSO READ | Swami Chaitanyananda: Steve Jobs ‘wrote’ his foreword; Obama ‘praised’ his book — now molestation charges haunt him
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