NALGONDA: Special Task Force police have arrested a fake baba who was cheating people in the name of conducting poojas and rituals to solve their problems on Sunday, after a raid was conducted at his ashram in the district.

Taking advantage of innocent people and their weakness in superstition, the accused named Sai Vishwa Chaitanya was arrested by the Nalgonda police after they received a complaint from a woman who stated that the baba had duped her of money while promising to heal her of some issues.

SP Ranganath formed a Special Task Force to investigate the matter and on Sunday conducted a surprise raid on his 10-acre ashram located at Ajmapuram village in the Pedda Adiserla Pally mandal in the district.

The police were shocked to find huge amounts of cash, gold, bank deposits, bonds, and property documents worth crores of Rupees, laptops and booklets related to spirituality, from the ashram during the raid.

As per sources, Sai Vishwa Chaitanya who originally hailed from the Krishna district was born and raised in Hyderabad. He is said to have studied up to B.Tech and also worked as a software engineer. He later launched a YouTube channel called Vishwa Chaitanya to attract people in the name of spirituality and acquired a decent subscriber base.

He later set up an ashram on ten acres in Ajmapuram and called himself a devotee of Sai Baba. He started giving speeches in spirituality while quoting from religious texts, making talismans, and performing homams and other spiritual activities, and is said to have made crores of Rupees from these activities.

Police believe that the accused was conducting illegal activities posing as a devotee of Sai Baba for the last six months. There are also reports of sexual abuse and harassment on the women devotees which also needs to be verified, police say. Nalgonda Police have registered a case and are likely to produce the accused before the magistrate on Monday. Police said that he would be interrogated once they get custody of the accused.

Further details are awaited...