The Tamil Nadu Police on Tuesday launched a search operation at preacher Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation in Coimbatore district’s Thondamuthur, a day after the Madras High Court sought a report on the criminal cases filed against it, The Indian Express reported.
Almost 150 police officers, led by an additional superintendent of police and comprising three deputy superintendents of police, launched the search. A verification of the inmates was conducted and rooms were searched as part of it, the newspaper quoted an unidentified senior police officer as saying.
On Monday, a bench Justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam directed the police to conduct an enquiry after hearing a petition filed by a retired professor named S Kamaraj.
He claimed that his two daughters – 42-year-old Geetha Kamaraj and and 39-year-old Latha Kamaraj – were being held captive at the yoga centre in the foundation.
According to S Kamaraj, the foundation was brainwashing individuals, converting them into monks and restricting their contact with their families, The Indian Express reported.
The retired professor said that his elder daughter, who had a postgraduate degree in mechatronics from a university in the United Kingdom, earned a substantial salary before divorcing her husband in 2008. After her divorce, she began attending yoga classes at the foundation.
Subsequently, his younger daughter, who was a software engineer, followed her sister and eventually decided to stay at the centre permanently, according to Kamaraj’s petition. The foundation administered food and medicines to his daughters that dulled their cognitive faculties, the petition said, adding that this had led them to cut ties with their family.
During the hearing, the bench asked why Vasudev was encouraging young women to tonsure their heads and live like monks at his foundation when he had ensured that his own daughter was married and “well-settled”, The Hindu reported.
However, the petitioner’s daughters, who were present in court, said that they were residing at the yoga centre of their own volition and no one had detained them against their will.
The counsel for the foundation, K Rajendra Kumar, told the court that an adult was free to choose their own path in life. An inquiry into such personal decisions was unnecessary as the women were acting on their own free will, he added.
“You will not understand because you are appearing for a particular party,” Subramaniam said in response. “But this court is neither for nor against anybody. We only want to do justice to the litigants before us.”
Noting the apparent hostility between the daughters and their parents, Subramaniam said: “You [the petitioner’s daughters] claim to be on the path of spirituality. Don’t you think that neglecting your parents is a sin? ‘Love all and hate none’ is the principle of devotion but we could see so much hatred in you for your parents. You are not even addressing them respectfully.”
The counsel for the petitioner, M Purushothaman, also told the court that criminal cases regarding the foundation had been filed in the past, which suggested a pattern of misconduct and legal violations.
The court directed Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak to submit a report listing all criminal cases pending against the foundation by October 4.
In response to the claims, the foundation said that it did not ask “people to get married or take up monkhood; these are individual choices”. The yoga centre hosts many individuals and only a few have chosen monkhood, the statement said.
“Previously, this very petitioner, along with others, tried trespassing into our premises on the false pretext of being a fact-finding committee to enquire about the facts surrounding the crematorium being constructed by Isha Foundation and then filed a criminal complaint against the people of Isha Yoga Center,” the statement claimed.
“Against this, the Hon’ble High Court of Madras has granted a stay on submission of the final report by the police,” it added. “Apart from this, there is no other criminal case against the foundation.”
On the police raids, the foundation said what was happening was only an inquiry. “They [police] are inquiring with residents and volunteers, understanding the lifestyle, understanding how they come in and stay, etc,” it said, according to The Indian Express.
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