The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Godman pleads innocence

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Thursday, Feb 14, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Godman pleads innocence

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: Nityananda Swamy, a self-styled godman wanted in the fake currency racket case, who was arrested by the Cyberabad police on Tuesday, pleaded innocence and alleged that he was being falsely implicated in the criminal cases.

Speaking to reporters after being presented at a press conference, the 51-year-old swamy, whose original name is A. Ekambara Rao, maintained that facts would come out in due course of time.

He maintained that he was not aware of the police registering a case against him. “I was performing ‘puja’ at a religious place in Kothi all these days and didn’t know about the development and surrendered before police on learning about the case,” he claimed.

However, the Sanathnagar Inspector M. Sridhar Reddy told reporters that they raided his rented house in Gayatrinagar near Borabanda on a tip-off. Police said that he had confessed to have kept the fake currency notes in his house, which were given by a devotee, Raja Reddy of Mumbai.

Police suspect that Nagesh from Banjara Hills and Ramesh from M.J. Market could be involved in the fake currency racket.

According to the Inspector, several allegations were levelled against him in the past few years. However, only one criminal case was registered against him in Addanki police station of Ongole on charge of digging private land for treasure trove.

Charges against him include collecting money from people with false promises of providing them jobs. However, the swamy told the police that it was his niece Shanti Priya, who opened a man-power consultancy at Vijayawada and collected money from his disciples but failed to secure them jobs.He told the interrogators that he only tried to help his niece.

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