By IANS
Kathmandu : The Nepali godman who had created panic in the capital with his prediction of doomsday found his prediction come true Friday – but only as far as his career as a prophet was concerned.
When doomsday failed to smite Nepal early Friday morning as predicted a month before by the fake prophet, angry residents of Kathmandu beat up Trishul Baba and began demanding stringent action against him, resulting in security forces detaining him for questioning.
Bishweshwor Chaudhari, a former builder from Sindhuli district east of Kathmandu, chucked his profession about three years ago to come to Kathmandu and set himself up as a godman.
Sporting long hair and sometimes a crown, as well as flowing yellow robes, Chaudhuri claimed to have been touched by divine power to be endowed with special qualities.
He claimed he could cure people of their maladies by touching them with a trident, kept under a dazzling shade made of red cloth worked with gold and silver thread.
Trishul Baba's followers began distributing pamphlets warning readers that a killer earthquake would smite Nepal, India, Pakistan and other neighbouring countries exactly at 6.15 a.m. Friday and would continue till July 10.
The pamphlets said over 300,000 people would die in Nepal and even more in India.
Rivers would flood, animals would go berserk and the land would open up, the dire predictions said.
When the pamphlets spread panic among the gullible, Nepal's council of astrologers as well as the home ministry issued separate assurances, ruling out any cataclysm on Friday.
However, after the time of danger came and went without any untoward incident, enraged people thronged his house in Dhapasi in the capital and roughed him up.
Trishul Baba, speechless and looking deflated, was marched off by police to determine his reasons for making such dire predictions and creating panic.