The arrest of Hindu pontiff Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi on a murder charge renews the spotlight on the seamier side of religion where money, power and sex litter the path to god.

In a deeply spiritual country with multiple faiths and sects, religion has over the years been a convenient hideout for criminal elements, with police records chronicling scores of murders, rapes and robberies by and for men in holy garbs.
 
Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi of the Kanchipuram monastery has been accused of hiring killers to finish off his former accountant Sankara Raman, who was allegedly on the verge of spilling the beans on financial corruption in the management of the mutt in Tamil Nadu.

In the world of moneyed ashrams, political swamis and self-proclaimed Sufi babas, this is not a first.

Like Kanchipuram -- one of India's seven holiest Hindu sites with nearly 300 temples -- cities abundant in temples have been found to be the den of criminal activities like drug smuggling, sex trade and land grabbing.

"Whenever gullible people can be exploited by people of divinity, money is under no control," says Sanal Edamaruku of the Indian Rationalist Association.

"It is big business; huge amounts of money coming down generations is handled by a few people without any accountability or transparency, which creates situations in favour of criminal activities."

Edamaruku, who has spent years exposing fraud by so-called godmen, cited a decade-old case of killing of four students in an ashram in southern India. The students had been helping in the accounts department.

Swami Premananda is in a Tamil Nadu jail for a case involving big money, murder and rape.

Similarly Swami Sadachari is jailed in New Delhi for various activities including blackmail and running a brothel. The once-powerful swami, who even performed rituals at a prime minister's residence, was nabbed only when he fell out of favour with those in power.

Another "godman" is Chandra Swamy, widely seen as an influence peddler and whose links with VIPs in India and abroad have stirred much controversy. Although he was recently exonerated by courts on charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy against a former prime minister, his lifestyle is often seen as epitomising the dark side of organised religion and its flirtation with activities that render it suspect before law and society.  

Police officers say similar crimes are rampant in other faiths too. For instance, Jesuit priest Father Clement Kujur was arrested on a sodomy charge in Orissa last year.

According to Maulvi Muazzim Ahmed of the Fatehpuri mosque, there have also been instances in his own community.

"These miscreants are primarily impostors. It is the responsibility of religious leaders to carefully ascertain people before involving them in such activities," Ahmed said.

A senior police officer said: "Mutts, ashrams, waqf boards and ecclesiastical organisations handle an enormous amount of money, which provokes crime. Nobody wants to question them because they also enjoy political clout."

In Uttar Pradesh's small but politically volatile temple town of Ayodhya, there are some 8,000 religious orders, in which priests are directly or indirectly said to be involved in crime. Many are reportedly on the run from law.

According to reports, at least 100 swamis face criminal charges in Ayodhya, the town Hindus believe is the birthplace of their god Ram.

These activities are more or less caused by a constant fight for control of land and power.

In Hardwar, sadhus are alleged to be involved in not only land grabbing but also selling of drugs.

Three years ago in the same city, six people, including a woman, died in a clash between sadhus, apparently over the woman who was living with one of the sadhus.

Police officers say religious shrines often prove to be a good refuge for criminals escaping the law. Matted hair, a long unkempt beard and long robes are a disguise that can serve well at least for a few years.

"The kind of lifestyle they lead is completely different from the austerity prescribed in the scriptures, it gives our tribe a bad name," said priest Lakshmi Narayan Shastri of the Lakshminarayan Temple, popularly known as Birla Mandir.

--Indo-Asian News Service