Godman arrested for illegal possession of cheetah skin

CHENNAI: The police have arrested godman Eswar Srikumar for the possession of a cheetah’s skin at his house in Kamdhar Nagar in Nungambakkam. After being remanded in judicial custody and sent to the Puzhal prison, he complained of chest pain and was taken to government hospital in Royapettah.
The police said Srikumar (62), who had been running the Sakthi Visalam Trust in West Mambalam and was absconding since December 15 after a woman filed a complaint of sexual harassment against him, was nabbed on Tuesday near Koyambedu.Simultaneously, a police team searched his house and recovered the cheetah skin. He claimed that a friend from South Africa had presented it to him a few years ago but he couldn’t produce details.
The Mambalam police booked him under Sections 42 and 43 of the Wildlife Act read with the Amendment Act, 2002 and arrested him.
Earlier, a case had been registered under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC based on the complaint of Hemalatha, a former employee of the Sakthi Visalam Trust. She said in her petition that she had been sexually assaulted by Srikumar several times in the last two years and had even raped her after giving her coffee spiked with a sedative. He also, she claimed, taken photographs of her in a compromising position with him and blackmailed her into having sex with him.
“Srikumar was produced before a magistrate’s court on Wednesday and remanded in judicial custody at the Puzhal prison. While being produced before the prison officials, he swooned and had to be rushed to the government hospital in Royapettah after prison doctors examined him. He is now at the prisoners’ ward in the hospital. He will be moved to Puzhal prison after doctors confirm that his condition is normal,” a police officer said.