Two devotees of Nithyananda file complaints against former aide

Two women devotees of self-styled godman Nithyananda, including South Indian film actress Ranjita, have filed separate complaints against former disciple Lenin Karuppan accusing him of attempted rape, extortion and other charges.

Ranjita, who was in the thick of a controversy following airing of an alleged sleaze video involving her and Nityananda, filed a criminal complaint in a Ramanagara court against Lenin who blew the lid off the scandal.

The other devotee, Ma Nithya Supriyananda has filed a complaint of attempted rape, threat to life and verbal abuse of her community (scheduled caste) at Bidadi police station.

Ranjita in her complaint, copies of which were furnished to reporters during her first appearance before the media after the incident, has charged Lenin with attempt to rape, extortion and acts intended to insult the modesty of women among other things.

Ranjita cited various instances when Lenin made sexual advances towards her and when she threatened to complain against him to Nithyananda, he "displayed few poorly shot videos of his molestation of two women Brahmacharis on his laptop" and warned that she would see her own photos in such videos if she dared to complain.

Unable to stay in the Dhyanapeetham because of the sexual harassment, she returned to Chennai, she said.

On February 2, while she was in Kerala for a film shoot, she received a call from an ashram resident that a lawyer by name R Shridhar, an accomplice of Lenin, had met him in Salem and had followed him to Ramanagara where he displayed certain photographs of Nithyananda said to be in a compromising position with her, she said.

He had sought payment of Rs20 crore for not releasing the photographs to the media, she said.

Alleging that the purported video was "expertly crafted to give no indication about its morphing", Ranjita said it was her "loss of confidence in police due to the manner in which they had conducted the investigation" that she was taking legal recourse, hoping to get justice.

Supriyananda termed the response of the police at the Bidadi police station as "biased and unfair".

"They have treated my complaint as a petition and not as an FIR, you tell me where will I get justice," she said.

Meanwhile, the Bidadi police suspect it to be "false complaint" and said inquiry into the complaint was on.