Bengaluru: A Sessions Court in Ramanagara, adjoining Bengaluru, on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against controversial godman Nithyananda.
The III Additional District and Sessions Court issued the NBW in a case of rape in 2010.
An open-ended warrant was also issued by the court against him earlier, but the police were unable to secure him or find his whereabouts.
The trial in the case has already commenced and three witnesses have been examined, but in the absence of the accused Nithyananda, the trial stalled over the last three years.
Nithyananda has failed to respond to all the summons issued against him since 2019. The NBW issued today is returnable by September 23.
2010 Rape charges
A young engineer returned from the United States to stay in the ashram of Nithyananda. The young woman alleged that the godman had raped her over the course of five years from 2004 to 2009.
She along with Lenin, Nithyananda’s former driver had filed a police complaint where they alleged that the godman forced his close confidants into sexual acts with him. The woman told the Karnataka High Court that other women too were abused but had been silenced.
Later Nithyananda, who claimed that he was impotent had to undergo a potency test on the directions of the Supreme Court.
The whole episode did not turn well for the young engineer who had to endure lot of hate and trolls from the internet and otherwise.
Though Nithyananda was arrested, he was released on bail later.
In 2020, the bail was canceled again following a petition by Lenin, claiming that Nithyananda has escaped from the country.
Nithyananda’s Kailasa
Nithyananda is believed to have left the country and established his ashram Kailasa, believed to be situated on an island off Ecuador in South America. It is declared as the ‘world’s greatest and purest Hindu nation’.
The rape case is pending in the Ramanagara Sessions Court and the godman has failed to make an appearance since 2019. After multiple summonses went unanswered, the NBW was issued.
(With inputs from PTI)
