lakh every month, Shiv Murti Dwivedi alias Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji
Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale (39) has come a long way in the past 22 years.
Dwivedi, a self-styled godman, was arrested by south district police
on Friday for operating a high-profile sex racket. It involved former
airhostesses and students.
Starting as a security guard at a five-star hotel at Nehru Place in
1988, he landed in the middle of a prostitution racket in his quest
for quick riches. He was first arrested in Lajpat Nagar in 1997 for
running a prostitution racket with a massage parlour as a facade.
Dwivedi had himself worked at a massage parlour in the same area in
1990 where he was earning a monthly salary of Rs 3000. He also used to
get Rs 20 for every massage. Here he came in contact with pimps and
had soon picked up tricks of the trade. Within a few months, Dwivedi
had started his own massage parlour during which he came in contact
with pimps like jailed Kanwaljeet and Sonu Punjaban to whom he even
supplied call girls.
After his arrest, he changed tack, turning to Shirdi Sai Baba and
meditation. He used to meditate at a Badarpur temple and soon
attracted a string of followers. With their help, he bought land in
Khanpur's C-block in 2000.
"Dwivedi had more than a lakh devotees and in 2002 bought another plot
of land in Khanpur where he built a three-storey house which has
nearly 14 rooms," said a senior police officer. The temple had CCTVs
installed inside with the control room in his private chamer. He even
built a tunnel inside the temple.
Dwivedi, according to the cops, has garnered assets worth several
crores in the past 12 years. Besides a 20-acre plot in Chitrakoot
where he was building a hospital and a temple and the temple and house
in Delhi, Dwivedi had also rented three government flats in different
areas of south Delhi. He used two of these for running his racket
while one was used as a temple rest house.
DCP (south) HGS Dhaliwal said, "Dwivedi was also arrested in a stolen
property case in 1998. He called himself Ichchadhari Sant Swami
Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot and claimed to be a disciple of Sai
Baba." Police said he also ran a security agency at Khanpur.
On Saturday when Times City visited the temple in Khanpur, all the
flats were locked. Locals said their complaints to the cops had gone
unheard all these years and the Baba and his cohorts have been
threatening them. "They always had politicians and businessmen
visiting them," said Rajendra Kumar, a resident of the area.
The police say Dwivedi organised several pravachans and satsangs
involving politicians. A couple of prominent politicians have,
meanwhile, denied any links with Dwivedi, saying they knew him only as
a disciple of Sai Baba.
Dwivedi had recently delivered a sermon in North Avenue which was
attended by several prominent MPs and MLAs. The racket was busted when
the police received a complaint regarding his activities. The cops
found that he had floated a website. A decoy customer was sent and a
deal stuck after which the police nabbed him and six women.
