NEW DELHI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Indian police on Saturday arrested a Hindu spiritual guru on charges of raping a 21-year-old woman devotee inside his religious compound near Delhi.
"The 70-year-old self-styled godman Kaushlendra Prapanacharya Phalahari Maharaj was nabbed from a private hospital in western Indian state of Rajasthan's Alwar town after a preliminary probe conducted by us," Paras Jain, Alwar's additional police chief, told the media.
Popularly known as Falahari Baba as he eats only fal (fruits), the spiritual guru got admitted to the hospital complaining of high blood pressure after cops this week booked him for rape, following a complaint by the woman in her homestate of Chhattisgarh in eastern India.
"We conducted a medical examination of the spiritual guru at a government hospital in Alwar, where his sugar and blood pressure levels were found to be normal. He has been charged with rape and is now in our custody," the official said.
In her police complaint lodged recently, the woman has alleged the spiritual guru raped her when she had visited his ashram (religious residential compound) at Alwar last month.
"Police in Chhattisgarh have sent the complaint to us. Based on the complaint, we have registered a case of sexual exploitation and initiated investigation," the officer-in-charge of Aravali police station in Alwar, Hemraj Meena, said Thursday.
The arrest comes close on the heels of another self-styled godman, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, being sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping two of her women devotees by a special court that is also trying him in two murder cases.
