Nithyananda Case: High Court Pulls up CID
 
Bangalore, Sep 22 (DC) : The CID was at the receiving end of the court’s displeasure on Tuesday when it’s investigation officer was pulled up for filing an incomplete affidavit in the investigation against self-styled godman Nithyananda Swami.

While hearing the criminal petition filed by Nithyananda, Justice Arali Nagaraj directed the investigating officer to file a fresh affidavit by Thursday. The court said the affidavit has to be filed specifying the statement of witnesses against Nithyananda under section 376 of IPC (charges of rape) and should also reveal why efforts have not been made to obtain the state government’s consent before proceeding against Nithyananda under section 295A of IPC (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class).

The court took serious exception to filing an incomplete affidavit when it found that the affidavit did not disclose anything on the recordings of statements by witnesses with regard to section 376 of the IPC.

Charan Reddy, DIG of CID, and investigating officer K.N. Yogappa were present before the court. Reddy explained the progress of the investigation to the court and also submitted that the CID was unable to record the statements of Nithyagopikananda and Nithya Vimalananda, both residing in the US. Nithyananda had sought to quash the FIR filed against him by the CID police. The court had made strong observations against the submissions made by the police on an earlier occasion saying that they were still not in a better position to file the chargesheet against Nithyananda. “Under the guise of suspicion, how long can you (police) torture a person mentally,” court had observed.

The court said if the police is finding it difficult to collect statements of people living abroad, it is better for them to travel and conclude the case.

Reddy also submitted an affidavit running into more than 20 pages giving details of a recent compliant filed against Nithyananda by a woman devotee. The officer submitted that the CID had recorded the statement of the complainant in August 2010.