Forgery: court junks self-styled godman’s anticipatory bail plea

Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of self-styled godman Chaitanyananda Saraswati in an alleged cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy case against him, PTI reported.

Additional Sessions judge Hardeep Kaur underscored the "nascent stage" of the investigation, besides his custodial interrogation being required by the police to "establish the entire chain of fraud, cheating, conspiracy and misappropriation of funds".

The court referred to the IO's contention that the accused was not available at his given address and that his cell phone was switched off.

The order took into account the "seriousness of allegations" and the "gravity" of the crime.

The investigation so far, the court noted, showed creation of a fraudulent trust, namely ‘Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management Research Foundation Trust', by Chaitanyananda "to disburse" the property of ‘Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management Research' in the "fraudulent trust" created by him.

The court said the accused vested a specific plot into the fraudulent trust and sublet the same without any approval or intimation to the authority concerned.

“Revenues and funds generated from plot number 7 were intended for the benefit of Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management Research and the peetham (Sri Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya Mahasamsthanam Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri), but the accused diverted these revenues and funds for his own benefit and criminally misappropriated the property and funds of the peetham," the order said.

The FIR was registered for offences of cheating by personation, cheating by dishonestly inducing a person to deliver property or consent to its retention, forgery, forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

The self-styled godman has also been booked for allegedly sexually harassing 17 female students of a private management institute here.