New Delhi, March 7
The police today invoked stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj, a self-styled godman, arrested for running a multicrore prostitution racket in the Capital.
“We have invoked the provisions of MCOCA against Dwivedi,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) HGS Dhaliwal said. Under the act, the accused cannot apply for bail for six months. This enables police to furnish as evidence confessions made by the accused before a senior official not below the rank of a DCP. An assistant commissioner of police will now investigate the case. Normally, an inspector probes such cases, said the official.
Dwivedi (40) was arrested on February 26 along with a man and six women, including two airhostesses. He was sent to five-day
police custody on Thursday. Dwivedi, who belonged to Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh, came to New Delhi in 1988 and initially worked as a security guard. He was arrested on prostitution charges in 1997 and 1998.
He then changed his appearance and started calling himself a godman. To cover up his activities, Dwivedi changed his name and claimed to be a disciple of Sai Baba.
“He founded the Sai Baba temple in Badarpur and gradually started a flesh trade racket on the premises. He constructed his own temple at Khanpur and started holding ‘pravachans’ and ‘satsangs’,” said police sources. They added that Dwivedi got articles about him published in magazines and released CDs of his sermons. Police believe that Dwivedi was in close association with some notorious pimps, including Sonu Punjaban and two others who was arrested in November 2008, and were running the racket along with them.
Apparently, they fell out and the others were arrested. The sources said Dwivedi earned crores of rupees through flesh trade. Half a dozen diaries recovered from Dwivedi’s possession contain names of his top clients, including some politicians.
Police are also planning to take Dwivedi to Chitrakoot.Investigators have found that Dwivedi has built cave-like structures in a temple he built in south Delhi’s Khanpur.
