Bobbitising case: Bail denied to self-styled godman

A self-styled godman whose genitals were chopped off by a 23 year-old woman, whom he was trying to rape, was denied bail by a court here today.

Judge Minimol T K of the court for the cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), dismissed the bail plea of Gangeshananda Theerthapada alias Hariswamswami.

The court also issued notice to the woman to appear before it on June 26 for recording of her statement on the police plea to conduct brain mapping and polygraph test on her.

The police had moved court for brain mapping and polygraph tests of the woman after finding her changing her statement frequently.
 

Giving a new twist to the case, the woman, who had claimed she had cut the genitals of 54-year-old Gangeshananda to foil his rape attempt, had later retracted her statement.

In a letter reportedly written to the lawyer of the accused, she accused the police of having coerced her to level the allegation against the man.

The police also wanted the court's sanction to conduct a medical examination of the woman, who was refusing to undergo medical examination "on one pretext or another."

She has now approached the court seeking CBI probe into the whole incident, saying she does not have faith in local police.

The accused, who was arrested after the incident, is in judicial custody.

Her mother had earlier written to the DGP stating that the man had not raped her daughter and claimed she had some mental problems.

The godman was admitted to the government medical college here with critical injuries on May 20.

The woman had earlier stated she had chopped off the man's genitals during a rape attempt at her home near here.

She had stated that the accused has been known to her family for the past few years and has been harassing her since she was a minor.

He frequented her home for performing poojas and used to assault her during the visits, the complaint had said.

Yesterday, in a habeas corpus petition filed in the high court, a man claimed that he and the woman werein love for more than a year and he used to visit her house occasionally.

He alleged that the girl wastaken away forcibly from her house as a result of a criminal conspiracy hatched by some people close to the self-styled godman and was illegally confined at a place in Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram.