New Delhi: Self-styled godman Chaitanyananda Saraswati, accused of sexually harassing at least 17 women students at a Delhi-based management institute, was finally arrested on Sunday from a budget hotel in Agra after spending nearly two months on the run.

Police sources revealed that the 62-year-old shifted between 15 hotels in 50 days, deliberately picking low-cost lodges with no CCTV surveillance to avoid being tracked. His aides, who are now under police radar, would book these hideouts for him.

Chaitanyananda is currently in police custody, but officials say he is refusing to cooperate with investigators. Claiming he was “feeling anxious,” the godman has dismissed all charges as baseless.

He has also told police that he has “forgotten the passwords” to his digital devices. Three phones and an iPad seized from him have been sent for forensic examination.

The case came to light on July 31 when an alumnus of the Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management-Research (Vasant Kunj) wrote to the management, alleging years of harassment of students, many of them from underprivileged backgrounds.

A day later, the institute received a formal complaint from a Group Captain in the Air Force Directorate of Education, flagging harassment and threats faced by students, several of whom were children of Air Force personnel.

The institute swiftly moved the police, leading to an FIR, and removed Chaitanyananda from all positions of authority.

Investigations later revealed that this was not the first case against him. Before the harassment scandal, the institute had already accused him of fraud, forgery, cheating, and criminal breach of trust.

Among the most disturbing allegations are claims that Chaitanyananda had installed CCTV cameras inside the women’s hostel, coerced students into accompanying him on foreign trips, and pressured staff to force students into entertaining his advances. Three institute officials, including the associate dean, have been named as co-accused in the FIR.