Godman held for rape, sexual harassment of woman for 17 years, cartridges seized

As stated in the FIR, the victim's father had been under the influence of Nayan and Mishra. (Representational image/File)

Pune city police arrested eight persons including 59-year-old Radhamohan Mishra, a self-styled godman who allegedly raped a woman and subjected her to continuous physical and mental harassment for about 17 years.

The victim, a 42-year-old woman residing in Pune city and working as a project associate manager with a corporate company, lodged a first information report (FIR) at Kharadi police station on June 16.

Police arrested Mishra and another person, Swami Kanval Nayan (58), and six others including the godman’s servants and aides, all residing in Renuka Park in Kharadi, in the early hours of Wednesday.

As per the FIR, the victim woman hailed from Haryana and her father was a doctor. While residing in Haryana in 2000, they happened to meet a person named Swami Kanval Nayan during a “satsang” programme. In February 2001, Nayan allegedly introduced the victim’s family to Radhamohan Mishra, who headed an ashram in Panchkula. Nayan allegedly claimed Mishra was a god and asked the family to “surrender” to him.

As stated in the FIR, the victim’s father had been under the influence of Nayan and Mishra. In 2003, her father allegedly provided finacial aid to Mishra to start a hostel in Kurukshetra. Her brother, who was then around 11-years-old, had also taken admission at the hostel.

Around the same time, the victim took admission at a Dental College in Haryana. As mentioned in the FIR, Mishra allegedly called her to the hostel where he had inappropriate conversations with her. The FIR stated that after he showed her some graphic videos, Mishra allegedly asked his “sevika” (servant) to beat the victim with a wooden stick repeatedly to check if she could withstand the pain.

As per the FIR, the victim’s father had constructed a house in Kurukshetra and her family shifted here in 2007. The same year in November, the victim’s brother fell from the second floor of the house. He underwent treatment at a hospital and survived. However, Mishra claimed he saved the life of the victim’s brother, the FIR stated.

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As per the FIR, Mishra did not want to victim to get married and during 2009 and 2010, he allegedly sexually harassed and raped her. In 2010, Mishra influenced the victim’s family to shift to Pune with him. It was alleged in the FIR that between 2013 and 2016, Mishra allegedly raped the victim repeatedly, recorded her nude videos and tortured her with electric shocks.

The FIR mentioned that to rid herself of the harassment, the victim ran away without telling her parents and got married to a man who she met on a marriage portal, but Mishra allegedly continued to harass her and forced her to divorce. The victim alleged in the FIR that Mishra made her commit thefts at her father’s room in 2025 and take property away under her name.

As per a press release issued on Thursday, police booked Mishra and other accused under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 61(2),64(2)(M), 68, 74, 75, 77, 123, 115(2), 351(2), 3(5) and sections of the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act.

Police arrested the accused and seized eight laptops, nine cell phones, 19 hard discs, 23 pendrives, 10 DVDs, a DVR machine, two CPUs, Rs 6.6 lakh in cash and 10 live cartridges from them, during investigation. Police produced the eight accused before a court in Pune on June 17.

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Police sought their custody to determine whether they were involved in sexually harassing more women. Police said they also wanted to investigate the source of the live cartridges recovered during a search at the house of the accused persons.

Defence lawyers argued there were property disputes between the main accused Mishra and the victim’s father and brother, which are pending in civil courts, and hence this offence was lodged. Defence lawyers also claimed the accused were arrested illegally. The court however remanded the accused persons to police custody till June 20 for further investigation.