Children ’forcefully kept’ in Nithyananda’s ashram

mangaloretoday.com/yahoo

Bengaluru, Nov 18: A disciple of Nithyananda has alleged that his children have been forcefully kept inside an ashram of the self-styled godman for the last four months. However, two of his daughters have claimed that they are in the hermitage out of their own will.

Disciple Janardhan Sharma, who was with the ashram earlier, alleged that his children — three daughters and a son — were in the ashram’s gurukul (school) in Bidadi, off Bengaluru, but were moved to Ahmedabad without informing him. He further said that the staff did not even allow the parents to meet their children.

"I am continuously following up from the past four months. They are not letting me meet my kids, despite the fact that I was once a worker in this organisation," Sharma said.

After his complaint, the police visited the ashram and gave custody of a girl and a boy, both minor to the parents.

"Based on a complaint we received from Sharma on November 1, we have also taken statement from another daughter who is 19 years old. She says she is in the ashram on her own and is not willing to go with the father. The statement from the ashram committee also says she is associated with the ashram and is currently on tour," deputy SP HS Sarda said. The police said they will record her statement again when she returns from the tour.

Meanwhile, the 19-year-old girl and her elder sister, whose location is not known, released videos on Facebook accusing the parents of trying to forcefully bring them out of the ashram.

A non-bailable warrant was issued by the district court in Ramanagara in September 2018 against Nithyananda, accused in a rape case. However, in January this year, high court quashed the same. Nithyananda’s current location is unknown.