Who is Simhayaji Swami, one of three involved in TRS MLAs poaching?

HYDERABAD: Who is Simhayaji Swami, one of the three accused in the poaching case of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs? What's his background?

He reportedly has a history of using divination for his personal gain.

Originally christened as Ashok, he was born in a small village in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana called Ayyavari Palle. After the death of his mother, when he was just 3-4 months old, he was adopted by Desai Venkata Ramana Rao, the then village revenue officer of Nambulapulakunta of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.

Ashok, alias Simhayaji Swami, who completed his intermediate education, worked as a Telugu teacher in a private school in Rayachoti, sold all his furniture and moved to Tirupati.

About eight years ago, he met with Chaturvedi Swami, who belonged to Chennai, and walked on the path of 'edo peetham' (divination), after which he had changed his name to Simhayaji.

He called his house 'matham', a place for lamentation, and only visited it sometime during the night, spending most of his days telling people that he would build and renovate old temples.

However, it is believed that his intention behind restoring temples was to dig out hidden treasures. He said that he would renovate Devagudipalli's Lord Lakshminarasimha Temple and would invest crores of rupees to do so. Locals of the village shooed him away when one night he started excavation without any notice. A lawyer's daughter, who belonged to Rayachoti, also lodged a complaint against him to protect the Archeology of the temple.

Simhayaji Swami has a wife and two sons, one of whom is mentally challenged. He ignored his family and continued to indulge in various criminal conspiracies.

His close confidants said that inorder to step foot into the political game, he worked with the BJP, a reason behind his involvement in the poaching. He was heard speaking about the details of the deal with TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy.

It is still unknown as to what transpired within the three accused and how they are connected with the BJP. However, it is clear that Simhayaji Swami was politically supporting the BJP.