A day after the Madras High Court came down heavily on Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and his Isha Yoga foundation, a team of 150 police personnel accompanied by district revenue officials launched search operations at the Isha Foundation Ashram in Thondamuthur near Coimbatore on Tuesday. The high court had sought a report on all criminal cases registered against the foundation.
The search operations were carried out for over eight hours and details are awaited. Led by an assistant deputy superintendent of police and three deputy superintendents, the search focuses on the whereabouts and well-being of the residents of Isha Yoga Centre.
“As per the court order, the police, including the SP, have come to the Isha Yoga Center for a general enquiry. They are enquiring with residents and volunteers, understanding the lifestyle, understanding how they come in and stay, etc,” Isha Foundation said a statement.
The search at the centre is the outcome of a habeas corpus petition filed by Dr S. Kamaraj, a retired professor and the father of two girls who are allegedly at the foundation ashram against their will. Kamaraj in his petition before the Madras High Court said that his two daughters Geetha Kamaraj (42) and Latha Kamaraj (39), were brainwashed by Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation and were forced into monastic life. He had also mentioned about the knowledge and education acquired by his two daughters before getting into the Isha Yoga Centre.
Kamaraj said his elder daughter was a post graduate in Mechatronics from a prestigious university in the UK. She was earning a substantial salary before divorcing her husband in 2008. She later joined a yoga course by Isha. Following in her footsteps his younger daughter, a software engineer, also went to Isha Yoga Centre.
Kamaraj in his petition further alleged that the foundation administered food and medicines to his daughters that dulled their cognitive faculties. The food and medicine, he said, led them to sever all ties with their family.
Hearing the petition, Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam asked why Sadhguru was "encouraging other young women to tonsure their heads, renounce worldly life, and live like hermits at his yoga centres, when he had got his daughter settled”.
The judges decided to probe the issue further after interacting with both the daughters of Kamaraj and ordered the revenue officials to submit a report on all the criminal cases against Isha Yoga Centre.
