A middle-aged 'holy man' has been arrested for allegedly harassing a British woman who had been 'lured to his ashram', by convincing her father that he possessed 'great spiritual powers'.
Swamy Janana Chaitanya, whose real name is P N Sudhakaran, was arrested by the police yesterday on the basis of the statement from 24-year-old Amanda Williams, who managed to escape from the 'holy man' with the help of her father a few days back, the police said.
The woman had complained that she had been 'mentally and physically' harassed by Chaitanya, who held her in his ashram for a year after marrying her through 'deception'. Amanda and her father P R Williams came to know of Chaitanya through a UK-based NRI, who told them he possessed great spiritual powers.
Chaitanya kept in touch with the Williams family through the internet and finally made Amanda come to his ashram by threatening her father that he would make the young woman go mad through his spiritual powers if he refused to send her to him. Amanda managed to send an SMS to her father when the 'swami' was away in Mumbai recently. Williams rushed to Kerala and, with the help of a lawyer, managed to free his daughter and brought her to the Arya Samajam centre in Kozhikode.
Amanda and her father left for the UK after giving a statement to the police. Chaitanya has been remanded to judicial custody by a magistrate in Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.
