As Premier’s Hold Slips, India’s Psychic to Powerful Finds Himself in Jail

NEW DELHI — When Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao’s beleaguered government was riding high, the potbellied, bearded Chandraswami, India’s most controversial guru, psychic and faith healer, seemed legally untouchable.

But Rao’s party is now in the midst of a pitched national election battle, expected to lose seats in Parliament and perhaps even forfeit power after votes are tallied next week.

It may have been more than a coincidence, therefore, that on Friday a magistrate in New Delhi ordered the flamboyant Chandraswami, 46, advisor to the rich and powerful and a confidant of Rao, to jail for the night.

The Hindu holy man, in glittering gold chains and rings, had been arrested the previous day on charges that he bilked a businessman out of $100,000 more than 12 years ago.

A bail hearing is scheduled today for the mysterious spiritual figure who once seemed to enjoy unbounded patronage in the highest circles of Indian officialdom despite a sheaf of corruption- and influence-peddling allegations against him.

In ordering Chandraswami’s arrest in an 8-year-old case, New Delhi Magistrate Prem Kumar made no bones about accusing the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is directly under the prime minister’s command, of “dillydallying.”

“The unholy nexus of politicians, power brokers, bureaucrats and businessmen in debasing and devaluing our system has been shaken by the activist role played by the apex court,” the judge said, referring to recent orders from the Indian Supreme Court to the CBI to move faster in probing cases of official corruption. “Those who felt they were beyond the clutches of the law are now facing prosecution.”

In September, Rao demoted his internal security minister two days after that official ordered Chandraswami arrested.

Chandraswami--who claims Elizabeth Taylor, the sultan of Brunei and many other notables among his admirers--is widely known to have served as a spiritual advisor to the 74-year-old Rao. As late as last year, his car was allowed right up to the portico of the prime minister’s residence, and he had VIP police protection.

The guru, whose real name is Nemi Chand Jain, has been investigated for alleged involvement in forgeries, currency-exchange violations, embezzlement and arms deals.

An admitted money launderer, S. K. Jain, whose meticulously recorded payoffs to high-ranking Indian politicians forced the resignation of seven members of Rao’s Cabinet earlier this year, also claimed during CBI interrogations to have used Chandraswami as a conduit to pay money to Rao himself.

The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing.

In the current case, Chandraswami is charged with cheating a nonresident Indian, Lakhubhai Pathak, the head of a London-based company, by promising in 1983 to use his influence to help Pathak win fat government contracts for newsprint. The guru says he committed no crime.

“I am surprised I have been arrested,” Chandraswami shouted to a judge in Madras, who during a 2 a.m. hearing ruled him fit for an airplane trip to New Delhi.

Chandraswami allegedly got himself admitted to a hotel belonging to a Madras hospital after learning that an arrest warrant had been issued for him Thursday. Police arrested him and his secretary at the hotel.

According to CBI officials, though Chandraswami claimed to be unable to walk, he was seen strolling through his room. In the capital, hundreds of Chandraswami’s saffron-clad disciples crowded into the court premises but were not allowed into the courtroom to view their idol.