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The 32-year-old, who is also facing rape charges, came to a trial court in Ramanagaram, about 50km from here, to surrender after cases were slapped against him and his disciples over fracas at his ashram near here last Thursday and Friday.
Ramanagaram district police superintendent Anupam Agarwal said when Nityananda sought to surrender, trial court Judge Komala asked him to appear before the court today.
Hence, he was taken into “protective custody” in view of the tense situation in Bidadi, 35km from here, where Nityananda has an ashram on a 29-acre plot, Agarwal said.
Bidadi is in Ramanagaram district.
Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on June 11 ordered the arrest of the controversial religious leader and the sealing of his ashram following trouble with journalists last Thursday and a group of Kannada activists the next day.
Nityananda had called a press conference to give his version of the story after a Kannada TV channel aired interviews of several women who alleged they had been sexually exploited by him.
Ramanagaram police have filed cases against Nityananda and his disciples as also against Kannada activists for the fracas at the ashram last week.
The guru went missing from his ashram late Thursday and suddenly appeared before the Ramanagaram court yesterady, though earlier in the day he had issued a media statement that he would be back in his ashram today.
After the chief minister’s order to seal the ashram and arrest Nityananda, Ramanagaram police have been searching the ashram for the last two days for any evidence of alleged immoral and objectionable activities there.
Nityananda faces a rape case filed in 2010 after a Tamil TV channel aired a video showing him in sexual acts.
Soon after the telecast, Nityananda went into hiding for over a month. The Karnataka police found him in Solan in Himachal Pradesh and he was sent to a jail in Bangalore for about seven weeks.
He has been out on bail since June 2010.