sex racket.

Express News Service Tags : godman sex racket, delhi Posted: Saturday , Feb 27, 2010 at 0024 hrs New Delhi:

He organised satsangs, composed spiritual music, constructed a temple and has now been arrested for running a prostitution racket.

Following the arrest of the self-styled spiritual guru, his accomplice and six sex workers on Thursday, the South Delhi police claimed to have unearthed a major prostitution racket.

The police said the accused — his real name is Shiv Murat Dwivedi, but he was also known by many others, including Rajiv Dwiwedi, Shiv Murti and Shiv Roop and Swami Ichadari Sant Swami Bhimanandji Maharaj Chitrkootwale — arranged for sex workers in upscale areas of the Capital as well as five-star hotels.

Of the six arrested, two are working with airlines and one is a management student, the police said.

Yet another is a former student of a South Delhi school, the police said. The arrested associate has been identified as Parveen Kumar (28).

“On Thursday, Sub-Inspector Sanjay Sharma was sent to Dwivedi as a decoy customer. After he struck a deal at Saket with him, we arrested the group. The cars they were travelling in — a Honda Civic and a Honda City — were also seized,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), H G S Dhaliwal.

Dwivedi came from Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, to Delhi in 1988 and began working as a security guard at a hotel in Nehru Place. Later, he worked at a massage parlour in Lajpat Nagar and began a prostitution racket, for which he was arrested in 1997.

After being released on bail, he transformed himself into a spiritual leader.

“He soon began a flesh trade racket. He also constructed a 200-bed hospital in Chitrakoot, atemple in Khanpur and began holding satsangs,” DCP Dhaliwal said. The hospital and the temple were meant to further sex trade in the garb of charity, he added.

The police recovered Rs 1.55 lakh, besides copies of a magazine containing Dwivedi’s articles on spirituality as well as video CDs of his sermons in the impounded cars.