Officials conduct inquiry at Isha Yoga Center based on High Court direction

Police personnel and officials of the Social Welfare Department conducted an inquiry at the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore on Tuesday, a day after the Madras High Court directed the police to submit a status report on the allegations raised by a petitioner against the Isha Foundation.

District Superintendent of Police K. Karthikeyan, District Social Welfare Officer R. Ambika, and members of the District Child Protection Unit and District Child Welfare Committee visited the Center for inquiry, which began around 10 a.m. and continued till the night.

Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam of the High Court ordered the inquiry while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by S. Kamaraj, a retired professor, whose daughters had joined the Foundation. The two women appeared before the court on Monday.

The petitioner had accused the Foundation of abusing certain persons by brainwashing them into becoming monks, and not even allowing their parents and relatives to meet them. The petitioner had also submitted that a criminal case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was registered against a doctor who worked at the institution, on the charge of molesting 12 schoolgirls. His counsel had submitted that several other criminal cases were registered too.

“In view of the serious nature of the allegations raised against the institution, and the manner in which the detenues have spoken before us, we could form an opinion that some more deliberations are required to understand the truth...,” the judges had said in their order on Monday, tasking the Additional Public Prosecutor to submit a report on October 4.

As per the order, an affidavit of the petitioner stated that his elder daughter contacted him over the phone on June 15 this year and informed that his younger daughter would be fasting unto death till the petitioner gave up his litigation against the Center. The court directed the Coimbatore Rural Police to conduct an inquiry and file the status report.

Foundation responds

A statement issued by a spokesperson of the Foundation on Tuesday said, “We do not ask people to get married or take up monkhood...Isha Foundation was founded by Sadhguru [Jaggi Vasudev] to impart yoga and spirituality to people. We believe that adults, individual human beings have the freedom and wisdom to choose their path. We do not ask people to get married or take up monkhood as these are individual choices. The Isha Yoga Center is home to thousands who are not monks, and a few who have taken up brahmacharya or monkhood...”

The statement further pointed out that the monks had presented themselves before the court, and said they were staying at the Center out of their own volition. “Now that the matter is seized by the court, we hope that the truth will prevail and there is an end to the unnecessary controversies...”

It alleged that the petitioner, along with others, tried trespassing into the institution’s premises on the pretext of being a ‘fact-finding committee’ to inquire about the facts surrounding the crematorium being constructed by the Isha Foundation, and then filed a criminal complaint against the people of the Isha Yoga Center. The High Court has granted a stay on the submission of the final report by the police. Apart from this, there is no other criminal case against the foundation, it added.

Published - October 02, 2024 12:07 am IST