Fake PMO links, ‘BRICS’ ties, hotel-hopping: How Delhi ‘Godman’ Chaitanyananda evaded police for 2 months

Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati.

After nearly 50 days on the run, Chaitanyananda Saraswati, alias Parthasarathy, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment and fraud, was arrested by Delhi Police from a hotel in Agra on Sunday around 3:30 am.

The arrest came after days of evasion marked by frequent hotel switches, fabricated claims of government connections, and a calculated bid to disappear within religious communities.

Chaitanyananda, former director of a management institute in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, was brought back to the city early in the day and produced before a court at 3.40 pm. He was sent to five days of police custody by duty magistrate Ravi.

According to authorities, cops also seized fake visiting cards from the accused — one card claimed he was ‘Permanent Ambassador at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)’, and another that he was Commission member and ‘Indian Special Envoy De Premiere at BRICS’.

‘13 hotels in two months’

Chaitanyananda had gone into hiding after over 17 women students, most of them from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) scholarship programme, accused him of sexual harassment, including sending obscene messages and unwanted physical contact.

According to media reports, the accused and his aides even falsely claimed connections with the PMO to secure cooperation from some hotel operators and aides while on the run. His associates made calls to people, implying that Chaitanyananda was linked to the PMO.

Chaitanyananda allegedly changed locations over the past two months, moving through Mathura, Agra and Vrindavan, and stayed in 13 hotels to avoid detection.

Police were quoted by The Times of India as saying that during the investigation it was revealed that Chaitanyananda had obtained two passports under different names — Swami Parthasarathy and Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati — with different details about his parents and place of birth. He had two bank accounts with Union Bank of India under two names.

“It was found that he was involved in shady dealings related to Sharada Peeth, a plot allotted in Vasant Kunj in 1998 for building a ‘mutt’. Saraswati allegedly changed its name to Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management without permission in 2008 and even rented out a property without authorisation,” a senior police officer was quoted by TOI as saying.