Fugitive self-styled godman Nithyananda's Ahmedabad ashram demolished

Ahmedabad, Gujarat : The ashram of fugitive self-styled godman Nithyananda was demolished by authorities here on Saturday.

Last month, the Gujarat Police said that the self-styled godman fled the country. Police in Ahmedabad had arrested two woman administrators of the ashram.

The arrested duo, Pranpriya and Priyatattva, were held by  police on the basis of a complaint filed by a Bengaluru resident Janardhan Sharma who alleged that his two daughters were held captive in Nithyananda's ashram.

Earlier on December 6, India had said that the passport of Nithyananda was cancelled and a fresh application of the same was denied as he did not get the requisite clearance from police and several criminal cases have been lodged against him.

"In this case, when we got information about cases pending against him, we cancelled his passport. His passport was issued way back in October 2008 which had a validity of 10 years. It was due to expire in September 2018 but it was cancelled much before that. He again applied after the cancellation, but it was put on hold because of adverse remarks from the police," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters at a weekly briefing in Delhi.

He said that the ministry has sensitised the missions and posts about the self-styled godman wanted in several criminal cases in India. "We have asked them to sensitise the local governments that in case he transits or he is in that country, they should let us know," Kumar had said.

Asked on Nithyananda's extradition process, the MEA spokesperson had asserted that no such requests have been received from agencies.

"We can only act based on the inputs we receive from different agencies. We have not received such requests. We can take action once that comes to us," Kumar had said adding that it is difficult to "speculate" about his exact location.