In UP village,devotees stop cops from probing ‘godman’ property

The team was supposed to take Dwivedi to the ashram and an upscale house he built for his parents in Manekpur area of Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh,but a crowd of around 2,000 did not let them enter,the police said.

The police need to establish in court that Dwivedi accumulated property and wealth from his crime syndicate to initiate the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Dwivedi. MCOCA also gives police the right to seize property built with money from such a syndicate.

Dhaliwal said the police are in the final stages of filing an application to invoke provisions of MCOCA in court.

In Chitrakoot,Dwivedi reportedly claimed innocence and alleged that some politicians had framed him in the sex racket case. Asked by the media about his alleged links with slain dacoit Dadua,Dwivedi accepted that he knew Danua but denied involvement in any crime.

In another development,police said they have found Dwivedi had at least four bank accounts under his ‘real’ name: Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi. The daily or monthly transactions ranged between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh in each account,officers said.

“He ran his empire very professionally,” DCP Dhaliwal said. He purportedly gave his staff and call girls allegedly working under him “proper holidays” and weekly breaks.