The Crime Branch police on Friday slapped a fresh case against arrested godman Sarathi Baba alias Santosh Roul and this time he was booked for outraging the modesty of a woman.
When hearing on Roul's bail application was deferred and he was remanded in judicial custody for two weeks by a lower court here on Friday, the investigating police officers booked him under Section 354 of IPC. The fresh case of sexual abuse against Roul was registered following a complaint made by an erstwhile woman inmate of his ashram in Kendrapara district.
The unmarried woman along with her mother came to the police headquarters for the second time on the day to register their complaint. Similarly, three other women had earlier brought criminal charges against Roul with an intent to outrage their modesty. Earlier booked for several charges of cheating, forgery and fraud, Roul is currently lodged in Choudwar circle jail.
Meanwhile, Roul's adopted son Satyam, who was arrested on Wednesday, was questioned for over ten hours on Friday by the Crime Branch. The court has allowed the police to take the junior Roul on remand for three days as his interrogation was necessary to establish the allegations of economic offences against the father-son duo.
In a related development, the Crime Branch on Friday picked up a woman, who was earlier impersonating as a CBI inspector and had submitted an FIR at local Mangalabag police station here on behalf of a Roul's woman companion. The woman companion, a medico, had accompanied Roul on a three-day Hyderabad visit in July this year.
The 24-year old medico later disclaimed her initial FIR saying that she was coerced by the henchmen of Roul to lodge the complaint against four former inmates of the ashram. The medico, nevertheless, lodged a subsequent FIR against Roul charging him with criminal intimidation and inducement.