After over 50 days of police and judicial custody, Nityananda of Nithananda Dhyanapeetam in Bidadi, accused of rape, criminal intimidation and cheating, was released from the prison in Ramanagaram.
The godman returned to his ashram in Bidadi soon afterwards.
The controversial godman was released after he furnished a personal bond of Rs. 1 lakh and two sureties of Rs. 1 lakh each as directed by the Karnataka High Court. On Friday, the High Court had allowed Nityananda bail application and he has been asked to surrender his passport
Nityananda's counsel Shyam Sundar furnished the papers related to the Rs. 1 lakh bond, the sureties before the Ramanagaram Magistrate Pushpavati. Following her order, the Ramanagaram Prison officials set Nithyananda free.
Nityananda, one of his close disciples Bhaktananda and two others, were arrested by the officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Karnataka, from a house at Mamlig near Solan in Himachal Pradesh.
Nityananda is accused of sexually assaulting a Tamil film actor from Chennai. Several television channels showed videos of Nityananda at the Bidadi ashrama with the actress.
People gathered in large numbers at the Ramanagaram Prison to see Nityananda on Saturday when the godman was released. Soon after Nityananda came out of the prison, he was surrounded by lawyers and police personnel. He was immediately escorted to a car that brought him to the Bidadi ashram.
Swami Bhakthananda, a senior swami in Dhyanapeetam, said Nityananda was going to perform panchatapas, an intense type of meditation from Sunday. The ashramites will be celebrating Nityananda's arrival by organising special puja and meditation, he said.
