Wednesday, February 16 2005 17:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: A local court today (Feb 16, 2005) sent the priest of Junagadh Swaminarayan temple and three others to six days police custody on charges of being involved in a sex scandal.

Metropolitan Magistrate D V Vaid remanded the priest Bhaktiswarup, city-based touts Mansukh Bhagat, Bhanu Bhagat and Thakkarsinh Patel to police custody till February 22.

Seeking their custody, the city Crime Branch, which had exposed the scandal yesterday, told the court that matters relating to who financed the whole operation, wherein Swaminarayan sadhus were caught on camera in comprising positions with women, needed to be investigated.

The police also told the court that they needed time to probe about the people connected with the filming of the sadhus.

The Crime Branch had arrested the priest and three others also recovered sleazy literature, CDs, condoms and contraceptive pills from the residence of the priest.

The CDs were shot at different places, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Bharuch and Junagadh and involving different Sadhus and were complied into one CD.

The accused have been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Act and the Immoral Trafficking Act.

The police had said two rival groups at the Vadtal Swaminarayan sect were out to defame each other to wrest control over the management of the temple. The incident is a fallout of this rivalry, the police added.