A self styled godman and his barbaric acts have shocked the people in Belgaum district of Karnataka. A seven-year-old girl was rescued from the ashram of the self styled godman Sadashiv alias Appayya Swamy and his aides. The police have rescued the little girl from the ashram and arrested the fake godman. He has now been sent to a jail. The fake godman claims that he has adopted the girl child. The traumatized child has been admitted to a hospital.
The fake godman claimed that the girl had not taken food or water for 20 days and he had kept her alive through spiritual powers. According to media reports, the police have found food, water, kerosene and other items used for rituals inside the 11 X 1 feet wide and 9 feet high cell, where the child Nijalingamma Channappa Doddamani was kept. The local administration has also rescued five more children from the ashram.
The fake godman had publicised that he was performing the Yog Samadhi of a girl child for the welfare of the society. He had claimed that the girl would be burnt alive and brought back to the life on Maha Shivaratri day. He had distributed pamphlets and collected even donations from the villagers. According to a report in a local newspaper ashram authorities placed the girl under logs of wood and burnt the pyre
As hundreds of devotees witnessed the event amid chants, the girl was whisked away and her body smeared with black paint and ash to show that she had been charred to death. Later she was confined in the underground cellar and the plan was to produce her alive on Shivarathri day to fool the devotees.
