New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS) A court here on Friday sent ‘Swami’ Chaitanyanand Saraswati, accused of molesting 17 women students, to 14-day judicial custody.

The accused, also known as Partha Sarathy, was produced before the Patiala House Court upon expiry of the previously granted 5-day police custody.

‘Swami’ Chaitanyanand Saraswati, director of the reputed Sri Sharda Institute of Indian Management in Delhi’s posh Vasant Kunj, is facing a criminal case for allegedly targeting female students enrolled in post-graduate management diploma courses under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) scholarship category.

The officials reported that the ‘Swami’ fled on August 4, shortly after the institute received a complaint from the Indian Air Force (IAF) headquarters accusing him of molesting female students.

On September 28, police arrested him at an Agra hotel. Chaitanyanand was then produced before the Delhi court, which sent him to 5-day police custody.

The police took him to the institute, where he was questioned for a few hours, and then brought him back.

According to investigators, Chaitanyanand would call female students to his room late at night and threaten to fail them or reduce their grades if they resisted his advances.

The police took Chaitanyananda to the “torture room” on the ground floor of the institution, where he would call female students for private meetings. So far, police have recorded the statements of three wardens of the institute.

According to the complainant, they used to help Chaitanyanand bring the girls to his room. Recently, Delhi Police detained two women associates and interrogated them.

It is not clear whether the two women associates detained are the same wardens. WhatsApp chats recovered from the phones of around 50 women students at the institute have revealed details of abuse spanning 16 years, including sexually explicit text messages and incidents of forced physical contact.

Allegations have also surfaced about the deletion of CCTV footage, with the DVR now sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination. During the investigation at the institute, the police examined the locations of the CCTV cameras installed on the premises. Chaitanyanand was also questioned about these cameras.

The investigation focused on determining which cameras Baba had access to and how he monitored the activities of the female students from those locations. Seventeen women filed complaints at the Defence Colony Police Station in early August, accusing Chaitanyanand of harassing students.

The officials also mentioned that Chaitanyanand has allegedly been preying on women for nearly two decades, emboldened by his ability to escape previous molestation charges in 2009 and 2016.

This time, the scandal came to light when 17 women lodged complaints at the Defence Colony Police Station in early August. At the time, Chaitanyananda was in London, but he was last traced to Agra.

He later filed an anticipatory bail petition in the Delhi High Court but withdrew it soon after. Adding to the controversy, police recovered multiple forged number plates from Chaitanyananda’s luxury red Volvo car, all carrying fake United Nations insignia with different digits.

Investigations confirmed that none of the plates were issued by the UN and had been fabricated by the accused himself. The car has been seized as part of the ongoing probe.

He also had two visiting cards. On one of the accused’s visiting cards, he identified himself as a BRICS Commission Member and had written “Special Envoy from India”. In the UN visiting card, he described himself as a “Permanent Ambassador”.

–IANS

pds/uk