Chennai, June 15: The Madras High Court today stayed all further proceedings against self styled godman Nityananda Swami, facing criminal charges including rape, by Puducherry police on a complaint by some advocates practicing in the union territory.
The interim stay was given by Justice C T Selvam on a petition filed by Nityananda, who sought to quash the proceedings against him.
Nityananda submitted that on March 5, advocate Aladi Mahendran and a few others, claiming themselves to be lawyers, in a “false” complaint to police, had alleged that he had cheated the general public in the guise of a ‘sanyasi’, amassed huge properties and “insulted” the religious feelings of Hindus.
The police had registered a FIR on the “vague” complaint without proper verification, due to pressure from the complainant even though a prima facie case had not been made out, he alleged
–Agencies