Isha Foundation row: TN Police files counter in SC
Tamil Nadu Police reported missing persons linked to Isha Foundation, citing expired medicines and a cremation ground. Supreme Court to hear the case soon.
The Tamil Nadu Police on Thursday filed their counter in the Supreme Court in the case that is related to the Isha Foundation, run by Jaggi Vasudev, and said that “many who went to the centre have gone missing and police have not been able to trace them,” said a statement issued by the government.
The counter added that a cremation ground is functioning inside the centre, and a hospital, which is also run on the premises, issues expired medicines to its inmates. The matter is coming up for hearing in the top court on Friday.
The Supreme Court on October 3 stayed an order of the Madras high court seeking a report from the Tamil Nadu Police on the centre.
On October 1, a team of child protection officers and police began conducting inquiries at the centre based at Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu.
The action was based on a case where a petitioner, a scientist and retired professor in agricultural research moved the Madras high court with his grievance that his two daughters, both of whom have a master’s degree in engineering, are being brainwashed at Isha. “...the foundation is abusing certain persons,” the petitioner said, by brainwashing and “converting them as monks and not even allowing the parents and relatives to meet the inmate monks.”
He also drew the court’s attention towards several other serious cases, including a doctor who is working with the Isha on the premises and is booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) sections for allegedly molesting 12 girls studying in an Adivasi government school.
The court directed the Coimbatore Rural Police to conduct an inquiry and file a status report, and posted the matter to October 4.
A multi-disciplinary team, which comprises the social welfare department, district child protection unit and child welfare committee, and led by superintendent of police of Coimbatore Rural K Karthikeyan, began the inquiries on October 1. Three streams of inquiries were being conducted on the directions of the high court — one, on the Pocso case; two, by retrieving all the criminal cases registered against Isha and reviewing its status; and third, a general inquiry on all the inmates staying at the centre.
The petitioner in his affidavit also made a disturbing complaint that the kind of food and medicines that are being given to his daughters at the centre have made them lose their cognitive abilities. Around 6pm on June 15, his elder daughter, Geetha Kamaraj alias Maa Mathi (42), suddenly called him on his mobile phone and said that his younger daughter, Latha Kamaraj alias Ma Maayu (39), is fasting unto death until he gives up the litigation against Isha, the petitioner added.
A bench of justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam wondered in court why Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru, encourages women to tonsure their heads and live like hermits when he ensured that his daughter is married and well-settled in life. The two daughters also appeared in court saying that they were residing at the centre out of their own choice. The foundation too contended that they could not understand the court’s concern about the choice of two independent adults.
However, after the foundation moved the apex court, a Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, also transferred the habeas corpus petition, alleging forceful detention of two young women by the foundation, from the high court to itself. “These are issues of religious freedom,” said Chandrachud as reported by Bar and Bench. “This is a very urgent and serious case. This is about Isha Foundation, there is Sadhguru who is very revered and has lakhs of followers. The high court cannot start such enquiries on oral assertions.”
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