Is God's Own Country turning into Godmen's Own Country? If the recent events involving fraud godmen are any indication, it is time Kerala'smost famous catchline was rewritten. Day after day, several scandals linked to self-styled godmen are surfacing in the most-literate state in the country.
On Tuesday, the house of a pastor was searched by Income Tax (IT) officials in Kottayam.
IT officials searched the home of one pastor Thanku in Kottayam following reports that he had allegedly amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, police said.
Meanwhile, a rationalist group, Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham, on Tuesday held a roadshow by sprinkling boiling water on the body of one of its activists to expose the fraud linked to one local godman, who claimed extraordinary powers.
The recent arrest in Kochi of Santosh Madhavan, who is facing charges of raping minor girls, cheating and financial fraud took the lid off flourishing spiritual rackets.
Bogus Swamis and spiritual fraudsters also came under scanner after a gun-totting Himaval Bhadrananda created a scene in a police station by threatening to shoot himself and opened fire causing minor injuries on his left palm.
Bhadrananda was also arrested and remanded. Two police officials were suspended for not professionally handling the situation.
In yet another incident of fraud by alleged godmen, a person was on Tuesday arrested for making false claims that he could cure several ailments, including cancer.
A complaint was registered against self-styled godman Chandran Mama in Kozhikode by his former disciple Aneesh, who had taken his father to the "Swami" for cancer treatment, police said.
The godman offered to cure the disease with a special medicine and demanded Rs 30,000 for the treatment, but he settled for Rs 10,000 and asked Aneesh's father to consume the medicine for a permanent cure, police said.
However, the patient got no relief from the medicine and died, the complainant said, adding it was he found out that the medicine prescribed by "Swami" was nothing but a product of Amway, that costs only about Rs 1,000 in the market.
The police is on the look-out for Chandran Mama, who has a sizeable number of followers.


The Government of Kerala appears to be on a collision course with religious groups in the wake of the several scandals associated with them, which the political leadership feels has done damage to the image of the state.
The arrest of a godman on charges of allegedly raping minor girls, the attempted suicide by another and a third who is now on the run after failing to pay back a loan of a million rupees, has prompted Kerala's Minister of Temples, G. Sudhakaran, to declare most swamis as frauds.
"They're conducting all kinds of criminal and material activities behind their spiritual exteriors," The Times quoted Sudhakaran as saying.
"Ninety per cent of them are fake and criminals. There are so many swamis who have enlightened the hearts and minds of people, but these people are fakes with no idea about spirituality. They are only interested in women and money and muscle power," he added.
His comments have outraged many devout Hindus, who consider these swamis to be beyond reproach, and even above the law.
Atheists and rationalists, however, have hailed the minister's diatribe, saying his speaking out could go some way in eliminating a malaise that has plagued India for centuries.
"This isn't just a problem confined to Kerala - the same thing happens everywhere else," Narendra Nayak, the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, said.
"You have all sorts of illegal things going on in ashrams, but police won't go in there because they're holy places," Dr Nayak alleged.
Part of the problem, he said, was that no Central religious or government body regulates the activities of the swamis.
James Vadakkumcherry, a former teacher at the Kerala police training college who is doing a study on bogus swamis, said that there were about 50 or 60 such 'holy men' in Kerala alone.

MF HUSAIN PAINTINGS NOT OBSCENE: DELHI HIGH COURT

The Delhi High Court today quashed the criminal proceedings against controversial painter M F Husain for allegedly hurting public sentiments by painting obscene pictures of Hindu goddesses.Hearing three petitions filed at different places, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, "the allegation is baseless. It is a matter of having different perspectives and cannot be the basis for initiating criminal proceedings.
The order was seen as a huge relief to the 91-year-old painter, forced to live in self-exile abroad after a series of protests against the controversial paintings.
One of the petitions mentioned that Husain had painted 'Bharatmata' in an obscene manner. The Court termed the controversial painting 'not obscene", Dwaipayan Venkateshacharya Warkhedkar had first moved the trial court, referring to a book titled "Anti-Hindus" published in 2003.
The book described how Husain's painting had allegedly denigrated Hindu deities.
The cases filed in different states were earlier clubbed on the direction of the Supreme Court and were being heard by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Courts in Delhi.