The Karnataka high court on Friday stayed an FIR filed against controversial self-styled godman Nithyananda in respect of a complaint filed by pro-Kannada activist Bhima Shankara Patil.
Justice Subhash B. Adi, who stayed the FIR, also issued notices to the activist and to a reporter working with a Kannada news channel.
The advocate for Nithyananda said that though the complainant claimed that the incident on June 7 occurred near the entrance gate and Nithyananda abused them in foul language and assaulted them, Nithyananda himself was nowhere at the scence of the incident. “How can Nithyananda abuse and assault the complainants when he was not at the place of occurrence,” the advocate argued.
However, the prosecution maintained that the incident occurred after Nithyananda instigated the incident while addressing a press conference and it was not correct to say that the allegations made in the complaint do not constitute any offence against Nithyananda.
“It is too premature to hold that he is innocent. When the matter is only at the stage of investigation by the police, the courts cannot interfere with the statutory powers of the police to investigate into the alleged offences and quash the proceedings,” the prosecution argued.
The two cases registered against Nithyananda arise out of the incident on June 7 at Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam in Bidadi, leading to series of other incidents creating law and order problems in and around the district of Ramanagaram.