Kochi, May 19 (IANS) Self-professed spiritual guru and astrologer to the stars Swami Amritananthachaithanya alias Santosh Madhavan was Tuesday found guilty of raping and sexually exploiting a minor girl by a Kerala court.
The Ernakulam Additional Sessions Court, however, exonerated Madhavan’s driver C.K. Thomas of all charges and set him free. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced Wednesday.

Madhavan had been arrested last year on charges of raping three minor girls and a woman. However, three of the victims backtracked from their complaints, leaving only one minor.

He had been astrologer to several stars and was also close to the top brass in the police department. The Bharatiya Janata Party had then alleged that Madhavan, who is in his 30s, was close to Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son and had even fixed the time of his marriage.

Trouble first surfaced after a Dubai-based woman from Kerala complained that the godman had cheated her after taking money from her. The complaints of rape and sexual exploitation emerged after the media took up the issue and his photographs were splashed all over.

He was also booked after large number of pornographic films were found from his flat here. Besides, cases for possessing ‘ganja’ and a tiger skin are also registered against him.