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Kerala godman case brings out dark side of spirituality
Published on Tue, May 13, 2008 at 02:28, Updated on Tue, May 13, 2008 at 02:40 in 
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Thiruvananthapuram: Although Swamy Amrita Chaitanya is pleading innocence before the media in the name of mistaken identity but police in Kerala now say that Santosh Madhavan alias Amritha Chaithanya could indeed be a fraud.
He is accused of cheating Sarafin Edwin of Rs 50 lakh in Dubai years ago.
The Godman, whose real name is Santosh Madhavan shot to the spotlight last week after Interpol issued a Red Corner notice against him on Thursday. Even as he continued to claim innocence, the Swami did a vanishing act late Saturday night.
Based on an email complaint the Kerala police raided Godman's properties on Sunday. However, what the police found in his apartment in Kochi was shocking. A tiger skin, porn CDs, bottles of alcohol and documents of land deals.
“We have raided the residence and other properties of Santosh Madhavan. We have got a number of things from all these places. Depending on these we will take action,” says Commissioner of Poilce, Kochi, Manoj Abraham.
The incident is slowly bringing to light the darker side of the thriving spiritual tourism business in Kerala.
“In the garb of spirituality, many people are doing a lot of other activities. This is huge business now as lot of tourists come to Kerala in search of spirituality and get easily cheated,” says Social Activist, CR Neelakandan.
However, legal experts say the Godman may get away as the cheating case against him in Dubai may not have legal standing in India. Although there were plans to book the Swami under the Wildlife Act for possessing a tiger skin, it is now suspected that even that is a fake.
With inputs from R Reghuraj
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god mans cheating is very invisible
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