Centre making all efforts to bring back Nithyananda

According to sources, the Ministry of External Affairs, which said Nithyananda’s passport has been cancelled, is understood to have alerted all its missions to be on his look out. India is also said to have approached Interpol for their help to trace the godman, who is facing cases of rape, unnatural sex, cheating and money laundering in several places including Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. The national capital is trying to find out what passport or which country’s passport he was using for his current international travel, sources said.

Recently the Gujarat police registered a case against Nithyananda on a complaint filed by a resident of Tamil Nadu demanding repatriation of his two daughters from his ashram in Ahmedabad. The Gujarat police later said after a raid that he had fled the country.

The MEA is understood to have told the Karnataka police that something concrete could be expected about Nithyananda by Wednesday next week. Two whistleblowers, Lenin and Arti Rao--who had fled his ashram near Bengaluru were in touch with the Karnataka police for effectively pushing the case against the Swami. A court in Ramnagaram is slated to hear a case against Nithyananda and the Karnataka police is coordinating with the prosecution for effective pursuit of the case.

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Nithyananda who is believed to have exited the south American country of Ecuador after unsuccessfully trying for asylum there. Ahead of the MEA statement on Friday, the Embassy of Ecuador said Nithyananda was not on its soil. He was denied the request for international personal protection (refuge) made by Nithyananda and presumably he was on his way to Haiti, the Ecuadorian statement said.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Friday said, “When we got information about the cases pending against him, we cancelled his passport first. Then he applied for a fresh passport which was denied and put on hold, because he could get the requisite clearance from the police.”

He said all the Indian missions have been sensitised to alert the local governments about the controversial guru. There is no clarity on how he managed to flee the country.

Meanwhile, Nithyananda had issued statements through his website kailaasa.org, claiming that he has set up a country for the followers of the Hindu faith on an island belonging to Ecuador.