Baba’s companion records statement in Odisha court

The young woman, who hit the headlines for accompanying self-styled Odisha godman Sarathi Baba on a trip to Hyderabad  last month, today recorded her statement before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) here today.

The statement running into eight pages was recorded in the court JMFC Mamata Rani Sahu under Section 164 of the CrPC and lasted about an hour and half.

The woman. a final year student of SCB medical College here, had filed an FIR at the Managalabag police station here against four persons accusing them of blackmailing her for over four months and forcing her to accompany the Baba to Hyderabad where she spent three nights with him in the first week of July.

Sources said during the recording of her statement, the woman was asked a host of questions including how she came in contact with the Baba, how long she had known the Baba for; did she accompany the Baba on her own; her itinerary during the Hyderabad stay; how the four persons she had named in her FIR came to blackmail her and so on.

Lawyers say she cannot go back on anything she said in her statement today. “What she said today can be used as evidence when the case comes for trial in the court,” leading criminal lwayer Manas Mohapatra said.

Crime Branch sources said Sarathi Baba, currently being interrogated by the agency on the last day of his three-day remand, would be confronted with some of the revelations made by the woman in her statement recorded today.

Earlier in the day, the medico was brought from her house in Paradip to Cuttack by a team of Crime Branch police. She had been shifted from her hostel room here to her home in Paradip due to security concerns. She is being provided security even in Paradip since she had said in her FIR that there was a threat to her life.