Medical tests exonerate Nithyananda of rape charge?

Science in all likelihood appears to have to come to the assistance and rescue of self-styled god man Nithyananda, with medical tests carried out on him by a government-run hospital in southern India reportedly showing that he is incapable of committing rape.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity have admitted that "the results have all but exonerated him of a four-year-old rape charge leveled by former disciple Arathi Rao.

Medical records of Arathi Rao that were released by a US court a few years earlier showed her to be a carrier of the highly contagious STDs. This medical test found Nithyananda to be free of those incurable diseases, further bolstering his claim of innocence.

Nithyananda, a spiritual master whose organization spans 50 countries with 10 million followers worldwide, was hit hard in 2010 by a scandalous video that allegedly showed him in a compromising position with a popular actress.

Both he and the actress have insisted that the video was morphed, a claim that was later proven by a confession by the COO of the media house that had released the fake video on YouTube.

Subsequently, the god man has been at the receiving end of numerous charges, ranging from financial irregularities to the hoarding of sandalwood and tiger skins. All of these cases except the current charge have since been dropped.

The much delayed trial, which is perhaps now more of a formality, will commence in Ramanagara Town near Bangalore this month.

Nithyananda has already filed a writ petition before the Karnataka High Court seeking Rs10 crores as damages to his ashram property from the state government.