Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 12: The court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) Wednesday allowed the Orissa Crime Branch (CB) to take self-styled godman Sarathi Baba alias Santosh Raula on a fresh three-day remand.
CB reportedly requested the court for granting a five-day remand of Sarathi, but the court allowed the agency to take him on a remand of three days.
CB officials produced Sarathi in the SDJM court here amid tight security Wednesday morning after his three-day remand granted by the same court came to an end.
CB officials produced a document containing 20 statements of Sarathi and a seizure list of his properties, sources said.
Up to 30 officers are engaged in the investigation against Sarathi. The focus of investigation during the second phase of his remand will be on his financial transactions and the Satyam Charitable Trust, a CB official said. Four platoons of armed police forces were deployed in and around the court premises to avoid any untoward incident.
During the first phase of his remand, the CB had interrogated four persons named in the FIR of the MBBS student, who had accompanied Sarathi to a hotel in Hyderabad, and 13 associates of Sarathi including his caretaker, driver and the cook of his Barimula ashram.
As informed by CB ADG BK Sharma, properties worth about RS 8-10 crore owned by Sarathi and the trust run by him have been identified during the investigation.