A team of 150 police officers carried out a search operation at the Isha Foundation’s ashram in Thondamuthur, Coimbatore, on Tuesday. This action was in response to a directive from the Madras High Court, which had requested a report on any criminal cases linked to the foundation.
Led by an Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Police, the search involved three Deputy Superintendents and focused on ensuring the safety and well-being of the residents while inspecting the premises.
A senior police officer said the operation is focusing on a thorough verification of inmates, and the search of rooms at the foundation. The court had ordered the Coimbatore Rural Police to conduct an enquiry and file a report while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Dr S Kamaraj, a retired professor, claiming that his two daughters, Geetha Kamaraj (42) and Latha Kamaraj (39), were being held captive at the foundation in Coimbatore.
He alleged that the organisation was brainwashing individuals, converting them into monks, and restricting their contact with their families. The court questioned the apparent contradictions in the life of godman Jaggi Vasudev, the founder of Isha Foundation.
Justices S M Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam asked why Sadhguru, as Jaggi is known among his followers, who had his own daughter married and well-settled, was encouraging other young women to shave their heads, renounce worldly life, and live as hermits at his yoga centres.
When Kamaraj’s petition said his two daughters were being held against their will at the organisation’s yoga centre in the foothills of Velliangiri, Coimbatore, both women, who were present in court, submitted that they were staying at the centre of their own volition and denied any form of compulsion or detention.
Although Kamaraj’s daughters insisted that their stay at Isha was voluntary, Justices Subramaniam and Sivagnanam were not entirely convinced. “We want to know why a person who had given his daughter in marriage and made her settle well in life is encouraging the daughters of others to tonsure their heads and live the life of a hermitess. That is the doubt,” Justice Sivagnanam remarked during the proceedings.
The petitioner’s counsel, M Purushothaman, argued that criminal cases involving Isha Foundation had been filed in the past, suggesting a pattern of misconduct and legal violations.
Despite the daughters’ statements and the defence put forth by the Isha Foundation, the court took the matter a step further, directing Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak to submit a comprehensive status report by October 4. This report is expected to include all criminal cases pending against the foundation.
