Nirmal Baba: No relief in cheating case

A court in Madhya Pradesh yesterday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of self-proclaimed godman Nirmal Baba and directed him to appear before it on June 25. Refusing to grant any relief to the applicant, the court of Second Additional Session Judge, SP Yadav, situated at Khurai town in Sagar district, said that since the matter is related to general public, therefore, it is not appropriate to give the benefit of anticipatory bail to Nirmal Baba. The lawyers representing the godman, BP Gulati, Dinesh Shrivastava and local advocate Pramod Singh Tomar, argued before the court that the person who had filed a complaint against their client does not even know him. They argued that since Nirmal Baba is a public figure he would not abscond, but the court did not agree with their arguments and turned down the bail plea. Bina resident Surendra Vishwakarma had filed the complaint in April against Nirmal Baba in the court of Bina Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) R K Devalia for “cheating and hurting personal sentiments”. The court on June 1 issued an arrest warrant against Nirmal Baba directing him to appear before it on June 25. However, the godman moved against the JMFC court order in the Second Additional Session Judge court, through his lawyers, which upheld the order