'Godman' held for assaulting follower

A self-proclaimed godman has been arrested, while police are on the lookout for another, following complaints being registered against them.  

Ramanandaswamy, who is also an employee of BSNL, was arrested by the Yeshwantpur police on Saturday on charges of assault.

A few years ago, Ramanandaswamy of Thindlu visited a godman. From then on, he started proclaiming himself to be a godman. He started astrology services and conducted spiritual programmes. Narayanaswamy, one of his devotees, introduced his family members to the godman and told him about the discord between his daughter Tulasi and son-in-law Srinivas Naidu.

Ramanandaswamy assured them that he would solve their problem. Tulasi became close to the godman after a couple of meetings, which did not go down well with Naidu.

Naidu started fighting with Tulasi and asked her not to meet him again. He also lodged a complaint against Ramanandaswamy in this regard. This infuriated Narayanaswamy and on Friday, he asked Naidu to meet him as he wanted to discuss some matter.
 When Naidu went to meet his father-in-law, Ramanandaswamy, along with

 Narayanaswamy and Govindaraju, assaulted Naidu and fled, said Naidu in his complaint. 

Ramanandaswamy and Narayanaswamy were later arrested and the police are on the lookout for Govindaraju, who is absconding.

Staff seek protection 

In the other incident, Uday, manager and Vasanth, driver of Devishree Ramaswamy, a godman and astrology consultant, registered a complaint at the HSR Layout police station on Sunday, against his “illegal activities.” 

The duo was working for the godman for over a year, but they decided to quit the job after witnessing the illegal activities.  They were threatened by Devishree that he would harm them, if they quit working for him, police said.

A year ago, the duo had found a video clip of Devishree in a compromising position with a woman and leaked it to media channels on Saturday. Their complaint said they were being threatened by Devishree and want protection, police said.

“It is said that he is in Tamil Nadu and is trying to contact lawyers in the City to get bail. We have sent a team to nab him,” said a police official.