'Sex guru' Nithyananda hoodwinks media, shows ‘potential’

Bengaluru: Controversial self-styled godman Nithyananda sent his body double ahead of his potency test on Monday, hoodwinking the media people, who had camped since 6 am near the two gates of Dhyanapeetam Ashram in Bidadi.

Around 8 am, a man clad in saffron with the physical description of Nithyanda, came out of the main gates of the ashram in an SUV covering his head and face.

Media teams, which followed the car for a distance, realised that they were being hoodwinked only after the car took a U-turn and returned to the ashram. By then, the media got the information that the godman reached Victoria Hospital around 7.40 am from an unknown destination.

The potency tests on Nithyananda began around 8.30 am and concluded at 1.30 pm, but all the while the godman chose not to come out of the hospital, apparently to avoid the media.

After undergoing a battery of potency tests at the Department of Nephro-Urology on the Victoria Hospital campus, the godman requested the doctors to allow him to take rest for a few hours. His disciples were seen ferrying baskets of fruits and other eatables inside the hospital.

Finally around 5 pm, Nithyananda, without his trademark smile, was wheeled out into an ambulance, with his disciples providing him cover. Nithyananda looked upset and even broke down when cameramen jostled near the ambulance.

From the hospital, the ambulance reached the Madiwala Forensic Sciences Laboratory for a voice test, which was proposed by the investigating officials to match his voice with the CCTV footage and the phone call recordings that have been submitted as evidence in the case.

He was later taken to the ashram in the same ambulance. The godman had to take the potency test after his appeal before the Supreme Court was quashed on September 3. The apex court directed Nithyananda to undergo the test in a case of rape filed by his former devotee, who is an NRI, in 2010. Though the CID had allotted 9.30 am for the tests, Nithyananda arrived early to avoid the media glare.

The medical examination team was headed by Institute of NephroUrology (INU) Dean and Director, Dr Chandrashekhar S. Ratkal. “The examining team consisted of four doctors – a urologist, general physician, psychiatrist, and a forensic medicine expert – whose names and identities will not be disclosed,” Dr Ratkal told Deccan Chronicle.

The doctors’ team began with a general check-up and later asked him to answer 18 questions on a sheet of paper which was part of the psychological test. Nithyananda had been told to come for the tests on an empty stomach. Once the physical and psychological tests were completed, the doctors decided that he was fit for potency tests. “We explained the tests to the godman, and only after his consent, the tests were performed.

The results of the tests will be ready within 48 hours and will be handed over to the investigating authorities in a sealed envelope,” said Dr T. Durganna, Medical Superintendent, Victoria Hospital.

Nithyananda was made to undergo four tests, including penile Doppler examination, nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) and testosterone tests.

Though he was initially reluctant and questioned the necessity of certain tests, he relented after the doctors counselled him, sources said. The godman argued with the physicians that the court had not directed the hospital to take up such tests, they said Certain sections of the media claimed that the godman refused to masturbate which was part of one of the potency tests, but he relented after the two NGO volunteers intervened.

Nithyananda complained to the doctors that he was tired and giddy after the tests concluded at 1.30 pm. The doctors examined him, found him normal and asked him to take rest for a while. “He was feeling tired, probably because of the mental stress,” said Dr Ratkal.