The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed controversial self-styled godman Nithyananda Swamy to undergo potency test in a 2010 rape case and slammed him and other accused for delaying the trial that has been pending for the past four years.
“Accused (Nithyananda) must subject himself to medical examination,” a Bench comprising Justices Ranjana P Desai and NV Ramana said as it dismissed the godman’s plea challenging the medical test ordered by the Karnataka High Court on July 16.
The Bench reprimanded even the prosecution for its “lackadaisical approach” in dealing with the case and expressed “extreme displeasure” that further investigation was still needed to be done in the case. The court was of the view that Nithyananda and other accused are “obviously not cooperating with the investigating agency” and asked them to do so.
The Bench also dismissed the plea of Ranjitha Menon, Tamil actress and disciple of Nithyananda, seeking her matter to be heard along with the appeals. In her petition, she complained of being wrongly projected as a victim. “On her grievance, we are not expressing any opinion. If law permits, she may take such steps as she is advised, in the trial court,” the Bench said.
In its 20-page judgement, the Bench said: “What is staring at us is the atrocious delay in disposal of the criminal petitions. The complaint is dated March 4, 2010. Cognizance of the offences has been taken in December, 2010. Petitions came to be filed by the petitioners in 2011/2012. We are in 2014.”
The Bench said it was deciding this matter in the hope that there would be no further delay and asked the prosecution and the accused to cooperate with the court in order to conclude the trial at the earliest.
In its July 16 order, the High Court had upheld the order of the CJM, who permitted the Criminal Investigation Department to subject Nithyananda to medical test in order to ascertain whether or not he was capable of having sexual intercourse, and also to collect his blood and voice samples. For this purpose, the court had asked him to surrender as he was on bail. While Nithyananda pleaded that he had already been subjected to the medical test once, the court found out that the first medical test was done to ascertain signs of injury on the accused.