Shiv Murat Dwivedi or Ichchadhar Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale, as he is known among his followers, was a spiritual teacher by day and a pimp by night.
He amassed a fortune by peddling sex and spiritualism till his luck ran out recently.
A former security guard, Dwivedi was arrested along with two air hostesses, a management graduate and a Delhi University student, in a sex racket bust up from an up-market area in South Delhi.
The South District Police arrested eight people, including six high-profile call girls, from the Saket area when they were approaching a five-star hotel to strike a deal with a prospective client. Among the women arrested include a 22-year-old MBA student and a 19-year-old DU student.
Two air hostesses were also held.
Besides Dwivedi, the only other male member of the gang arrested is Praveen Kumar (28), a resident of C.R. Park.
"All of them (the women) had a comfortable life and lived in sprawling homes in South Delhi. They were in this profession of their own accord to live a good life," DCP (South) H.G.S. Dhaliwal said.
Dwivedi had recently built a 200-bed hospital and a temple and had released several CDs of his teachings in Chirtakoot.
"Dwivedi said he got the idea of turning into a pimp while working as a security guard at a five-star hotel.
He later left his job and started working in a Lajpat Nagar massage parlour from where he was arrested in 1997 on charges of pimping," Dhaliwal said.
Realising he was in the bad books of the police, Dwivedi decided to metamorphose into a spiritual teacher.
He reinvented himself as a disciple of Sai Baba, and began operation outside a temple in Badarpur area of South Delhi.
As his following increased, he started holding frequent gatherings. It was then that he started luring girls from respected families who came to hear his teachings. "Those whom he found willing were taken into the gang, which supplied women to rich people, including many who were his disciples," the police said.
Saket SHO Pankaj Singh used members of his team to trap Dwivedi. The undercover agents posed as clients and busted the racket. Police said Dwivedi's gang charged between Rs 10,000 to 40,000 on a daily or at times even on hourly basis.
