Sarathi Baba’s lady disciple taken home; given security

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Aug 9:

The woman at the centre of the controversy over self-styled godman Srimad Sarathi Dev alias Sarathi Baba was sent to her home in Odisha’s port town of Paradip this afternoon.

The woman, it may be noted, had filed an FIR at the Mangalabag police station here on Friday evening apprehending a threat to her life and asking for security.

A team of commissionerate police, led by an inspector, accompanied the woman, a final year student of SCB Medical College here, from her hostel room here to her home in Madhuban area of Paradip town.The caretaker of the hostel aslso accompanied her.

Armed policemen are guarding the home of the woman in Paradip.

The FIR lodged by the woman has now been transferred to the Crime Branch, which is probing the case against the controversial spiritual healer.

The woman has hogged the media limelight since the day a television channel broke the news of her accompanying Sarathi Baba to Hyderabad and spending three nights with him at the posh Golconda Hotel in Banjara Hills.

While the Baba had flatly denied that he ever went to Hyderabad, the woman had nailed his lie admitting during a telephone interview with Kanak TV on Friday that she did accompany the Baba to Hyderabad. Castigating those who were insinuating that she had a physical relationship with the Baba, the woman had said she had gone with him to do his seva (service). She said she was a major and had every right to go wherever she wanted and do whatever she wanted.

While making it clear that she still considered Sarathi Baba her god, the woman had claimed that she had been forced to accompany her ‘god’ by four inmates of the ashram, who were blackmailing her with an alleged nude video they claimed to have shot of her during her stay in the ashram

Later the same evening, she filed the FIR naming the four as Nandi, Khaga, Kishor and Kaillash.