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	About a Porn Swami and a Murderous Priest By Don Sebastian Daily News & Analysis May 17, 2008 http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1164776 A sleazy godman stole the show in Kerala at a time when the local newspapers had to squeeze in Jaipur blasts, a sensational murder verdict, higher secondary results, and the second anniversary of the Left Democratic Front government. Santosh Madhav, who had been running a prostitution and porn racket under the pseudonym Amritha Chaithanya, has been remanded after a teenaged girl lodged a rape complaint against him. Santosh's woes started when a Malayalam weekly Keralashabdam went to town with a cover story featuring his previous avatars. The weekly exposed that the godman, who owns a 16-suite ashram in Kochi and property worth crores across Kerala, was in fact a fraudster wanted in the United Arab Emirates. The Interpol website has pictures of Santosh and his accomplice who had duped an NRI woman of Rs45 lakhs. Last Thursday, when all the papers followed up the story, police raided the swami's ashram. He was arrested on Tuesday after a teenaged girl accused him of raping her. The police have seized many porn CDs from his bank locker. It was reported that the swami had recorded many unsuspecting celebrities as well as taped girls in compromising situations through hidden cameras in his apartment in Kochi. The media impact was quick and strange. Mangalam carried a series of reports on fake godmen, starting with Swami Himaval Maheshwara Bhadrananda, on Tuesday. The next day the enraged swami stormed the daily's office in Kochi and threatened to punish any journalist who wrote against him, the paper said. He claimed to have predicted the tsunami and had prevented the spread of chikungunya, the report on Wednesday said. Bhadrananda, who was arrested and let out on bail on Friday, however, denied the paper's allegations. He said he was asked to come to the newspaper office to clarify his position. His advice to stick to the facts was misinterpreted by the journalists as a threat, the agitated swami told reporters. Friday's newspapers were thriving with the breakthrough in the sensational murder of a nun in Kottayam in 1992. While a Kerala Kaumudi 'exclusive' on front page said 'Priest is prime accused', Mathrubhumi went so far as to name the priest, Thomas Kottoor, the chancellor of the Kottayam diocese, on the basis of a CBI report submitted before the court. The CBI finding, based on the narco analysis of the priests and two nuns, was reported by all papers. The Kottayam diocese was quick to react with a note against character assassination by the media. The case, which was closed by CBI thrice for want of evidence, was kept alive by an active judiciary and an alert press. The church will have to wait till June, when the final report of the investigating agency is submitted before the court. Contact: s_don@dnaindia.net
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