Poachgate accused is MTech sanyasi; Ramchandra Bharati owns Rs 1.25 crore-flat, was proponent of cow urine

The video, Newslaundry says, was from a 12-day congregation of seers, called ‘Vajpaye Somayagam’, in a resort here in December 2020.

Hyderabad: The prime accused in the MLA poaching case, Ramchandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, it appears, has an interesting past, with an investigation by news website Newslaundry throwing some light on his life before the October 26 arrest from a farmhouse near Hyderabad.

According to the Newslaundry report, Satish Sharma had moved into a newly constructed, four-storied building in Faridabad’s Sector 31 in Haryana, just three or four months ago, paying Rs 1.25 crore for a first-floor flat which was registered in the names of his wife and mother-in-law.

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Sharma, 33, the report says, is originally from Kerala, adding that little was known about him but a video, purportedly from a 2020 event in Hyderabad, which shows Sharma speaking on the efficacy of cow urine, the futility of greed, and why one must forsake jeans and t-shirts. Interestingly, Simhayaji from Tirupati, who was also arrested along with him from the farmhouse, is also seen in the video, sitting next to him.

The video, Newslaundry says, was from a 12-day congregation of seers, called ‘Vajpaye Somayagam’, in a resort here in December 2020. The resort management and a member of the event’s organising team confirmed to Newslaundry that both Sharma and Simhayaji were in attendance.

In the video, Sharma is introduced by a woman as an MTech postgraduate from Mangalore University and a sanyasi. She says he took sanyas at an ashram in Uttarakhand in 2009. She also praises him for his ‘inputs’ to the Centre’s National Education Policy.

The video shows Sharma telling the gathering that he was invited to the event by Simhayaji. He shares his changed outlook on money and says he once worked in Germany as an IT professional. “Earlier, I used to sit in front of the computer for three-four hours at a stretch and run after money,” he says. “Now, I am trying to avoid it.”

He also claims he was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and given two years to live, and goes on to say that the boy (himself) went to Pathmeda (in Rajasthan).

“He drank cow urine and bathed with it twice, morning and evening. After six months, the boy remembered he had to get himself checked again…After the test, the doctor said it is better.”

He adds, “On December 21, that boy is sitting right here… in Hyderabad.”

According to Sharma’s new neighbours in Faridabad, he worked at a “South Indian temple” nearby. The flat, as of now, is locked, with neighbours saying his wife left for some other place after “Panditji’s arrest”. The parking space on the ground floor contained two white SUVs, one of which had a Telangana registration number, the report says, adding that the temple where Sharma worked was about 200 metres from his home.

Named Shree Krishna and Navagraha Temple, it is run by the Shree Krishna Sewa Samiti, or SKSS. An employee at the temple said the samiti runs “several” temples across India. Sharma was part of an SKSS delegation that met Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in March, the report says, adding that samiti office-bearers said Sharma began work at the temple about a year ago.