India, Sept. 27 -- A city court on Friday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of self-styled godman Chaitanyananda Saraswati in an alleged cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy case against him. Additional sessions judge Hardeep Kaur underscored the "nascent stage" of the investigation besides his custodial interrogation being required by the police to "establish the entire chain of fraud, cheating, conspiracy and misappropriation of funds". The court referred to the IO's contention that the accused was not available at his given address and his cell phone was switched off. The order took into account the "seriousness of allegations" and the "gravity" of the crime.

The investigation so far, the court noted, showed creation of a frau...