Chief priest Keshavan Namboodiri of Badrinath shrine in Uttarakhand, who was arrested for allegedly confining and molesting a woman in a hotel here, has been denied bail by a Delhi Court.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shreya Arora Mehta dismissed the application of Keshavan, saying the allegations against him are serious in nature and if he is released on bail, he may try to influence the witnesses in the case.
The court, however, granted bail to his associate Vishnu Prasad, a co-accused in the case, while asking him not to leave the national capital without intimating it and also directed him to co-operate with the police during the probe.
According to the police, the incident took place on February 3 at around 4:30 PM when a 28-year-old woman had gone to meet Keshavan at the hotel.
Meanwhile, Keshavan was produced before the judge on expiry of his judicial custody and he was sent back to jail till March 17.
The police which had filed the charge sheet in the case recently had told the court that the two accused were drunk at the time of their arres from a hotel room in Mehrauli area of south Delhi.
The accused have been booked under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of IPC, the charge sheet said.
The woman’s father knew Keshavan as he owned a hotel in Badrinath. On March 3, 2014 afternoon, Keshavan called her and said he wanted to meet her. She initially refused but later went to meet him along with her driver.
When the woman reached Keshavan’s hotel room, the woman saw that there were cigarette butts and the place smelt of liquor. Vishnu Prasad was also there,” the police said in their charge sheet.
It said that Keshavan asked Prasad to go out and shut the door.
“When the woman sat on a chair in the room, Keshavan tried to inappropriately touch her, following which she came out of the room and reached the police station with the help of her driver,” the charge sheet read.
Keshavan was suspended as the chief priest of the famous shrine soon after his arrest, Badri-Kedar Temple Committee chief Ganesh Godiyal had said.
———————— PTI