Ramdev melts in crowd, sports woman's dress to hoodwink police

New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) Maverick he is and Indian yoga
guru Baba Ramdev proved it once again early Sunday morning at
Ramlila Maidan as he jumped from the dais and melted into the
crowd, after which it took almost an hour for the police to
locate the yoga guru who was clad in a woman's attire.
Locating the 46-year-old yoga guru in the crowd as
well as sending him out of Delhi was marked by high drama,
keeping the security establishment on their toes as they
wanted to ensure law and order in the city.
As the men in khaki in large numbers marched in at the
Ramlila Ground at around one am (IST), the saffron-robed yoga
gururushed to the microfone and shouted 'Vande Mataram' to
wake up most of his followers who had by then fallen asleep.
A large number of lathi and gun-toting policemen tried
to climb the dais, following which 46-year-old Ramdev sought
five minutes from them to gather his articles but he took
them by surprise as he leaped from the three-metre high podium
and ran towards the enclosure where women were seated.
Policemen were at sea as they could not locate Ramdev
amidst a big gathering of women and in order to dupe them, he
was clad in a woman's attire and to cover his beard, he used
the 'dupatta' of a follower.

After an hour's frantic search, policemen managed to
locate Ramdev and then started removing his followers to take
him into custody. But the women, who were guarding their
'guru', were so enraged at the police action that a senior
police official had to bear the brunt of heckling while
escorted the yoga teacher out.
A similar drama unfolded as police tried to fly Ramdev
to Dehra Dun as he was externed from Delhi for 15 days. The
news got leaked that he would be brought to Safdurjung
Airport, leading to a gathering of Ramdev's followers and
prompting the government to adopt a Plan-B.

A top government source said as per law, the Centre
has to inform the state government, to which a person is
externed and in this case, it was BJP-ruled Uttarakhand. The
source said the news got leaked from Dehradun that he would be
flown from Safdurjung Airport and Ramdev's followers gathered
there.
Government had already arranged another plane at the
Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport and seeing the
gathering, they decided to take the yoga guru to the IGI
airport from where he was flown to Dehradun in a special
aircraft. After he was detained, he was kept in a government
guesthouse.
In the midnight drama, that broadcast live by
television cameras, Ramdev's supporters rose in protest
against the police action while some elderly men swooned due
to the impact of tear gas shelling resorted to by police.
Police action came after they withdrew the permission
for his yoga camp and imposed prohibitory orders after what a
senior police official said a political decision was taken to
end the protest.