Irked at ‘spurious gurus’, HC rejects bail of Siva Baba

Irked at ‘spurious gurus’, HC rejects bail of Siva Baba

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:18.08.2021

Society's collective gullibility in matters of faith comes handy for fake godmen and the so-called spiritual gurus to exploit people to the hilt. The reverential faith reposed on such spurious Gurus by their multitude of minions stands betrayed at the eventual exposure of their wickedness hid behind the mask of spirituality, said Madras high court, dismissing a bail petition by C N Siva Shankaran alias Sivashankar Baba, who was arrested by CB-CID on charges of sexual abuse.

Justice M Dhandapani before whom the petition came up for hearing, expressed shock at the manner in which the common man, in spite of his intellect and faculties, is being brainwashed by persons, who, under the guise of spiritual awakening and intellectual liberation, commit perverted acts on the women folk, as is alleged in the present complaints.

Stating that it would not be in the interest of justice if the self-styled god man is granted bail as he is also booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, the court denied bail to the godman.

“Of late, our society has been a hapless witness to the mushrooming of self-styled Godmen and gurus who hold out promises of deliverance or salvation to the people who look upon them for answers for all their inner struggles, who are being driven to the point of despair and despondency. The society that is all-pervasively influenced by myriad religious people, become invariably susceptible to machinations at the hands of the phoney Gurus,” the court said and stated that the society needed to guard itself against the attempts by such gurus in exploiting the people's emotional dependence on external agencies/forces.

These spiritual gurus, the court observed, invariably end up exponentially successful in aggrandizement of their wealth, power and influence, which has a cascading detrimental effect on the common man.

Earlier, counsel for the accused argued that there is a fallacy in the prosecution theory. He said the godman is 74 years old and cited health reasons to enlarge him on bail.