Accused of sodomy, Rajasthan ‘godman’ on the run
The accused allegedly made the man shave his body hair and get his ears pierced.
A 75-year-old self-styled godman from Nagaur is on the run after a 22-year-old man from Udaipur registered a complaint against him alleging that he had been sexually abusing him for the past one year, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, Mahant Ramsharandas, was booked for unnatural sex and extortion on January 5, said Rajendra Singh Jain, the station house officer (SHO) of Ghanta Ghar police station.
“He (complainant) came to the police station, along with his mother, and said that the godman was sodomising him for the past one year. The godman had befriended him through social media website Facebook,” the SHO said.
The accused allegedly made the young man shave his body hair, got his ears pierced, made him wear earrings and apply paint on nails. He would blackmail the victim through a video of the sexual act, made by him, Jain said.
Following the complaint, a police team visited the self-styled godman’s ashram, called Mandas Ki Bageechi in Ladariya village, for investigations, but he was found absconding since January 6, a day after the FIR was lodged. “The godman also took him (victim) to Pushkar and Bhilwara where others too abused him, the victim told us. His mother said that the godman would call him to Nagaur time and again. The son initially did not reveal anything to the mother, but later when the mother insisted, he told her everything,” the SHO said.
The police in Nagaur said that Ramsharandas was associated with a muth (monastery) in Didwana and was living in the Ladariya ashram for the past one and a half years. “The village folks had invited him to live there. It’s a small ashram and he was the only godman living there. There is no past criminal record of the godman here,” said Shambhu Singh, SHO, Maulasar police station.
Sodomy charges against another ‘godman’
A 37-year-old man has accused a self-styled godman of Santoshi Mata temple in Jaipur of sexual abuse.
In a press conference on Wednesday, the man said that he had been a regular visitor to the temple for the past 15-20 years. Four-five months ago, Avdesh Maharaj, the accused, called him in his room, bolted his door from inside and sodomised him, the complainant alleged. The Nahargarh police is investigating the man’s complaint.
Avdesh Maharaj, however, said that the claims were “entirely untrue” and “another godman” from the temple, named Prabhu Das, was instigating the complainant. He said that he would file a defamation case against Prabhu Das, who was present with the complainant in the press conference.