Banglore, June 11: “Swami Nithyananda is not a sanyasi and he never claimed to be one,” his advocate and senior counsel B V Acharya submitted in the High Court on Thursday.
Appearing for Nithyananda’s bail petition before Justice Subhash B Adi, Acharya submitted that Nithyananda never claimed to be a practising sanyasa dharma.
To Justice Adi’s query on how a man can claim to be a sanyasi and yet take a girl in his car, thus hurting the sentiments of his followers, Acharaya said, “Some ashrams practise grihasthashram (having a family life). Nithyananda is an ordinary man and we should treat his case as an ordinary one.”
Meanwhile, the government advocate submitted that so far no material was found to prove the alleged offence against Nithyananda, and so he is not required for further interrogation by the police.
Nithyananda’s counsel further argued that the CD showing him in a compromising position with a Tamil actress was fabricated. “There is every possibility that Nithyananda’s images were morphed on the CD,” he submitted.
This argument was approved by the Justice Adi who cited the example from the recent Bollywood movie ‘3 Idiots’ where a speech is manipulated by Aamir Khan by inserting his own words to change the meaning of the original.
Justice Adi reprimanded the CID for not completing the investigation in spite of being given ample time.
The police have investigated the offence against Nithyananda under IPC Section 295 A (hurting religious sentiments) and have registered a case of cheating against him, the government advocate submitted. “For 50 days Nithyananda has been in judicial custody, now the court can consider his bail plea,” the advocate said.
——Agencies