Shimla, April 21
Controversial godman Nityananda was arrested by a joint team of CID sleuths from Bangalore and Himachal Pradesh from Mamlik village in Solan district today.

Having been on the run for the past two months, the controversial swami had chosen the quaint little hamlet of Mamlik close to the airport as his abode. He was arrested along with four others, including two co-accused in police cases registered in Bangalore.

Clad in a saffron rob, the tainted guru seemed calm and composed as he appeared before flashing cameras with folded hands at the CID headquarters here. It was a mobile phone call made to one of his associates back home that gave a lead to the CID in Bangalore about his location in the Shimla-Solan area.

Nityananda and his aide Seelam Reddy were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate here tonight who granted them four-day transit remand, so that they could be taken by the Karnataka Police to Bangalore to be produced in court tomorrow.

ID Bhandari, ADGP, (CID), said those arrested with him included Arun Raj and Arpit Singhal, co-accused in the cases, Gopal Sailseh Reddy, alias Nityabhaktananda, and Shiv Shankar.

The police has seized three laptops, eight mobile phones, several SIM cards and a huge amount of cash from the rather secluded house owned by a Delhi-based businessman in Shivsankar Garh, close to the Jubbar Hatti airport.

Barring occasional trips by swami’s accomplices to nearby town of Arki to buy provisions and eatables, all of them remained confined to the house.

The police is on the lookout for the house owner who seemed to have given them shelter.

The Bangalore CID got in touch with the Himachal CID on April 17 and two days later, two DSP-rank officials from Bangalore arrived here to give final touches to the plan to arrest the absconding guru.

The local police, led by the Arki SHO, scanned the entire area to get information about the whereabouts of the controversial guru that they got from a taxi driver, who ferried them to Arki often. The guru had, on March 30, announced his decision to quit as head of Dhayanapeetam and all other trusts associated with it to lead a life of “spiritual seclusion”.

Shimla, April 21
Keeping up his stance of being in “secular seclusion”, self-styled godman Swami Nityananda has been chanting mantras, holding a “rudraksh” rosary in his hand, while refusing to reply to any of the police queries while in detention.

“Tell all my disciples not to agitate and keep calm as I am well and being taken care of,” is all that the swami has uttered in English while conveying a message to his men in the ashram on phone. Suffering from hypertension, he has, however, been particular is taking his medicines.