India
Police did not demanded custody for him, sending him instead to judicial custody. They had allegedly already interrogated him at the hospital.
Updated : Sep 24, 2017, 07:00 AM IST
Known as 'Falaahari baba' due to his fruit-only diet, the godman accused of rape, will be on a prison diet for the next 15 days at Alwar in Rajasthan. A local court has sent him to 15-day judicial custody after the Alwar police arrested him from a private hospital in the city. Kaushalendra Prapannachari, that's his official name, was admitted to the hospital shortly after a rape case was registered against him at Billaspur, Chattisgarh on September 20.
Police did not demanded custody for him, sending him instead to judicial custody. They had allegedly already interrogated him at the hospital.
A 21-year-old law student from Billaspur has accused the self-styled godman of raping her at his Divy Dham Ashram in Alwar on August 7, 2017. Her family has long revered Prapannachari and the girl had reportedly gone to the ashram to make a donation when the incident occurred.
She allegedly received death threats from the Falaahari baba's politically influential acquaintances and only found the courage to report the incident following the conviction of Dera Saccha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, in a rape case.
The local police has advanced cautiously in the case and monitored his progress in the hospital while investigative teams collected evidence from his ashram. Help of technical experts is being sough to recover data from the CCTV recorder seized from the ashram.
The student has arrived at Alwar accompanied by a team of Billaspur police and submitted her statements to the local investigating officer as the case is now being handled by Aravali Vihar Police Station.
On Saturday, the police arrested Falaahari baba and took him to a government hospital for a medical checkup. He was later presented at a magistrate court, that sent him to judicial custody.