Nithyananda blames an ashram inmate for the episode.

Swami Nithyananda Paramahamsar, whose alleged sexual acts were shown in a private Tamil TV channel, claimed that he was innocent and blamed an ashram inmate for the episode.

In his affidavit filed in a civil court in the city, the swamy said that one Perumananda alias Lenin Karupannan joined the ashram for “peace” but later started creating all kinds of nuisances on the ashram premises and caused hardship to the inmates.

He wanted to destroy religious sentiments and made false propaganda and defamatory statements against the swamy and the ashram.

Karupannan was very conversant with morphing of the images with the help of information technology, swamy claimed. He had also demonstrated his skills in morphing images and bodies, to the other inmates, he added.

Subsequently, Karupannan was “degraded”. And an enraged Karupannan started blackmailing the swamy by stating that he was in possession of morphed videos of other inmates and would expose them. The video clipping presently on air was also part of the morphed productions of Karupannan, the swamy alleged.

Later in the day, Swami Nithyananda’s associate and his lawyer claimed that “prior enmity” was the motive behind the airing of the clippings by a Tamil TV channel, allegedly showing the godman in a compromising position with an actress.

At a crowded press conference here, Atma Paramananda, public relations officer, Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, and advocate M Shreedhar said the godman had rejected Sun TV’s invitation to conduct a discourse on the channel as well as write for Kungumam, a magazine published by the group.

Besides, he had also refused to deliver special discourses during Deepavali.

“Keeping this in mind, the channel is trying to malign the image of Swami Nithyananda among his followers and spread false propaganda about him,” they said.

Claiming that the room shown in the video did not exist inside the ashram, they said the images of the swami had been morphed using high technology by a “group”. “The man shown in the video is not Swami Nithyananda,” the PRO stated categorically.

He said the channel had blurred out actress Ranjita’s face on March 2 and revealed it the next day only after a Tamil magazine published the pictures. The actress was threatened by Sun TV, he added. Shreedhar alleged that the TV channel had not bothered to crosscheck the authenticity of the video CD with the ashram and aired the clippings in haste.

They claimed that the entire exercise was a “big conspiracy” to defame the swami and aimed at increasing the TRP ratings of the TV channel.

A former engineer, Paramananda claimed there were 300 inmates in the ashram. “So far, not a single woman has filed any complaint against the swami,” he said.

He parried queries about Swami Nityananda’s whereabouts, saying the godman would present himself before them in the future and answer all questions. The duo said the ashram was working on a legal course of action on the issue.