Chennai: Enraged over the attitude of self-styled godman Nithyananda in not rectifying the misleading statements made in his affidavit, despite repeated warnings from the court, Madras High Court has warned of issuing arrest warrant against him if he fails to rectify the wrong by January 31.
Justice R. Mahadevan made the observation orally while hearing a petition from M. Jagathalapradhapan of Madurai, which sought to direct the authorities to take suitable and appropriate action against Nithyananda and protect the Madurai mutt.
Jagathalapradhapan also sought to restrain Nithyananda from interfering with the affairs of the mutt. When the case came up for hearing, after noticing that Nithyananda has failed to rectify the misleading statements in the affidavit, the judge directed the jurisdictional police present in the court to arrest Nithyananda and produce him before the court tomorrow.
“He is not above all. Only law prevails over anything in this court. Get the warrant from the court registry and arrest him,” the judge added.
After the judge posted the case to January 31, for further hearing, senior counsel Raghunathan, appearing for Nithyananda made repeated request to spare his arrest for one day and assured the court that all the mistakes will be rectified by January 31. Allowing his request, the judge simply adjourned the matter to January 31 without issuing any directions to arrest.
In December 2017, the court had passed interim orders restraining Nithyananda and his disciples from entering the Madurai Aadheenam until further orders.
During the hearing, the court had found that Nithyananda made misleading statements in his affidavit.
Though the court had warned the counsel for Nithyananda for such acts and directed him to file an affidavit making proper changes to the statement, Nithyananda failed to comply with the direction.
