NEW DELHI, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Indian police Monday said they have booked a self-styled godman on charges of sodomizing a man 10 years ago in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, the third such case of sexual assault against Hindu spiritual gurus in the recent past.
In his police complaint, the victim has claimed that the self-styled godman, Gyandayal Anand, committed the crime in a drunk state inside his religious compound at Ishagarh in the state's Ashok Nagar district in 2007.
At the time, the victim, now 27 years old, used to work with a religious trust that ran the religious compound of the spiritual guru.
"Gyandayal Anand has been booked under Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (carnal intercourse against the order of nature). We have started an investigation and are trying to locate him," district police chief Santosh Singh Gour told the media.
The victim told cops that he kept silent all these years as he feared for his life but he garnered courage after the recent conviction of godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The latest case came two days after police arrested another Hindu spiritual guru - Kaushlendra Prapanacharya Phalahari Maharaj - on charges of raping a 21-year-old woman devotee inside his religious compound in the western state of Rajasthan's Alwar town.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years in jail recently for raping two of his women devotees by a special court that is also trying him in two murder cases.
