A globe-trotting self-styled spiritual guru, Maha Vishnu, who landed into trouble over his justification of rebirth, according to the sins ccommitted in ones previous birth, in a lecture at a government school on Teacher’s Day, was detained on his arrival at Chennai airport on Saturday.

He was taken into custody on his return from Australia and taken to an undisclosed location for questioning. The police action followed a plethora of complaints against him, including those lodged by associations of differently abled persons. He is accused of preaching unscientific fundamentalist views to impressionable school children besides belittling the plight of the differently abled.

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On being produced before a magistrate, he was remanded in custody till September 20. The police have invoked sections 192, 196(1)a, 352 and 353(2) of the BNS against him.

Earlier on Friday, the cops in Tirupur searched his home in the town and the premises of his NGO, ‘Paramporul Foundation’, at nearby Kolathupalayam. And it was later found that he had left for Australia.

“If god is embodiment of compassion, why some are born rich, some in absolute poverty, some with deformities and diseases and some without homes? Some are born as heroes while others are not…Why should these be? It is because your present life is given according to the sins committed in the previous birth,” Mahavishnu told the students at the Girls Higher Secondary School in Ashok Nagar.

Though invited to deliver a talk on self-confidence, he digressed into supporting regressive and unscientific beliefs. He had earlier, addressed the students of another Government School at Saidapet in the city.

When a visually challenged teacher, Sankar, dared him not to preach superstitious beliefs, Maha Vishnu abused him asking “Are you more knowledgeable than the Chief Educational Officer (CEO) and other high officials who gave permission for the lecture?”

As the clip of his speech and abuse of Sankar as well his photographs with a few DMK ministers had gone viral online, it provoked huge public outrage with many political parties and activists demanding stern action.

Forced to turn into a firefighting mode, the Education Department ordered and probe has transferred the two head Masters and ordered a probe into the issue on Friday. School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, who visited the Ashok Nagar School assured that severe action will be taken against all those found responsible for inviting the speaker. “It will be a stern lesson for all across Tamil Nadu. I will not leave the speaker just like that. He had come to my place and abused my teacher,” he made clear.

Honouring Sankar, a Tamil teacher, for daring to confront the speaker, the minister said, “I am proud of him. It is Tamil that had questioned obscurantism. The Constitution requires us to promote scientific temper. Students need not take whatever is being said. Rather, they should rationally analyse and find out what is correct.”

Criticising the detention of Maha Vishnu, leader of the the ultra-Tamil nationalist “Naam Tamila Katchi” (We Tamils Party), Seeman, had lashed out at the police for treating him like a terrorist at the airport.

“What is the need for the arrest?” he questioned, adding “The Head Masters have been made the scapegoats by transferring them. How the speaker could be invited without the knowledge of the officials? If so, it shows that the Education Department is dysfunctional,” he charged.