New Delhi:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued a look out notice for yoga guru Baba Ramdev's aide Acharya Balkrishna, who has been booked for allegedly holding a fake passport, an official said on Monday.
The probe agency, which registered a case against Balkrishna on Sunday, has alerted airports to prevent Balkrishna from leaving the country.
"We have issued a look out notice for Acharya Balkrishna and alerted all the airports and border areas," said a CBI official, adding that his disappearance might hamper the investigation into the case.
The case was registered against Balkrishna on the charges of getting his Indian passport made by submitting forged university documents, the official said.
Ramdev, at a conference here, said: "Responsibility for giving a degree lies with a university. As far as the issue of using a degree for obtaining his passport is concerned, had his degree been fake why would have he used it?"
"The headmaster of the Radhakrishna Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya where he studied, its principal Acharya Naresh Chand Dwivedi is claiming that his degrees are real and Balkrishna studied there," he added.
Earlier, the investigating agency received a complaint that Balkrishna held more than one passport.
After the crackdown here on Baba Ramdev's fast against corruption in June, the government had asked security agencies to probe the allegations that Balkrishna held multiple passports.
Balkrishna, who resurfaced in Uttarakhand's Haridwar two days after mysteriously disappearing following the crackdown, denied all the allegations and asserted that he was an Indian and held an Indian passport.
Baba Ramdev's business empire comprises 34 companies which are controlled by Balkrishna.