Self-styled godman Nithyananda - who had been on the run for the last four days after a fresh controversy erupted - surrendered before the Ramanagara district court on Wednesday.
However, judicial magistrate Komala did not entertain his surrender plea due to certain shortcomings in the application. No sooner did Nithyananda come out of the court premises than the Ramanagara police arrested him.
They are said to have detained him at the Magadi police station for detailed interrogation. He will be produced by the police before the court again, at 3 pm on Thursday.
Even as the district administration and the police carried out an extensive search operation at the Bidadi ashram, which made his disciples flee the place, the godman arrived all of a sudden at the district court in a car bearing a Kerala registration number.
Two other cars bearing registration numbers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka followed his car.
The news of Nithyananda appearing at the court spread in Ramanagara town like wildfire and soon a large number of people gathered there.
The crowd wanted the godman to be handed over to them for ‘instant justice.’
But the heavy police presence thwarted any untoward incident. However, one of the disciples of Nithyananda was attacked by the crowd and injured seriously, sources said.
HC seeks records
Meanwhile, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to place before it the records pertaining to the incidents at the Nithyananda ashram.
During the hearing of a petition by Nithyananda seeking to quash the FIR against him, Justice Subhash B Adi directed the government to place before the Court all the relevant records with the police and the media, during the next hearing.
C V Nagesh, the counsel for the godman contended that the complaint against Nithyananda was malafide and that there were no allegations against him.
When the counsel for the petitioner sought directions to restrict the media from publicising the issue, the judge said that the Court cannot act based on the media