Met Nithyananda over a year back for few minutes: Cong leader DK Shivakumar

Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Friday said that he met self-styled godman Nithyananda more than a year ago for a few minutes only.

"I think I met him more than a year ago for a few minutes when I went to his ashram during elections ... We meet many god-men. They are also a part of our constituency," Shivkumar told ANI.

"I keep on meeting them, but I don't know about their personal issues. Today only I saw in some paper that he is not available," Shivakumar added when asked about his photograph with Nithyananda, which has gone viral.

The Ministry of External Affairs Thursday said that it did not have any formal information whether Nithyananda, who has been booked for kidnapping, has flown out of India.

Responding to a question on whether Nithyananda has flown out of the country and the Gujarat Police have contacted the MEA for his extradition, the Ministry of External Affairs said the location details of a person are needed to initiate the extradition process.

"We have no formal info, neither from the Gujarat Police nor from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Also, for the extradition request, we need the location and nationality details of the person. We don't have such information about him yet," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.