On Friday, october 18, the tamil Nadu police sent the supreme court a status report that listed all of the charges that had been filed over the previous 15 years against the Isha Foundation, which is situated in coimbatore and is run by Jaggi Vasudev. The report contains information from state government agencies such as the Social Welfare Department, cases of missing individuals, a sexual assault case moved from New delhi, suspicious suicides, and a POCSO case involving nine schoolgirls who are alleged victims.
Superintendent of police (SP) for coimbatore K karthikeyan presented the report in response to a complaint made by a couple who claimed that their children were being held hostage at the foundation's ashram. The coimbatorepolice report includes several details regarding Isha, even though the supreme court dismissed the parents' plea, stating that their daughters were adults with the right to make their own decisions. Meanwhile, a famous tamil magazine Nakkheeran has reported a video where a lady has conducted a sting operation and brought out the darker side of the Isha foundation.
According to the article, five of the six missing person cases that the Alandurai police station, which oversees the Foundation, filed have been dismissed since the missing people were located. Since the individual in one example cannot be located, the matter is currently being investigated.
Additionally, seven investigations under CrPC section 174 (suspicious death) had been filed at the same police station; two of these cases are being investigated since forensic results are missing. After an examination revealed that the deaths were not suspicious, the other five cases were closed. A cremation on the Foundation's grounds called Kalabairavar Thagana Mandapam is also mentioned in the SP report. The owner of the nearby land, SN Subramanian, contested the crematorium in the madrashigh court and begged for its removal. The organization claimed that the crematorium was not operating at the time, and the legal matter is still continuing.
The article also discusses the continuing POCSO case against Dr. Sarvanamoorthy, who used to do medical examinations at the mobilehealth Center while employed by Isha Outreach. The administrator of a governmentschool in Semmedu accused him last month of sexually abusing nine female students. The All Women's police station (AWPS) in Perur received the complaint, and the SP reported it to the SC. The SP goes on to say that the matter is still being looked into and that the doctor has been arrested.
The report goes into further detail on a zero-file complaint that a woman made in 2021 at the Saket police station in New Delhi. She claimed that while she was asleep, another participant had sexually abused her. The Perur AWPS was given custody of this case. According to the SP, an investigating officer who traveled to delhi for this reason recorded the woman's statement. The woman withdrew her complaint, and the matter was withdrawn in 2022.
However, the report points out that the woman’s statement had not been recorded as per CrPC section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) and that the accused, a man identified as Naveen, had not been arrested and interrogated. “Appropriate action will be sought from the court for further investigation,” the report adds.
What police say they found during the october 1 search Two psychiatrists from the pollachigovernment Hospital were also there, along with representatives from the health, social welfare, child protection, and food safety agencies. Each of them carried out independent investigations and gave the police their own findings, which were also filed with the supreme Court.
Their investigation revealed that there were 217 monks, 2,455 volunteers, 891 paid employees, 1,475 paid laborers, 342 children from Isha homeschool, 175 students from Isha Samskriti, 704 foreign visitors/volunteers, and 912 guests staying on the property.
A total of 558 people were randomly surveyed. This group included 44 people living in the family quarters, 17 schoolchildren, 42 guests, 80 employees, 33 monks, 179 volunteers, 152 staff members, and one foreigner. They were questioned on the ashram's cuisine, security, and any other issues they could have encountered.
Additionally, 45 randomly selected pupils from Samskriti and Isha homeschool were interviewed by the social welfare, food safety, and child protection authorities. According to the SP's report, these officers believed that regular awareness campaigns about the POCSO Act, children's rights, and the child hotline were necessary. It was also revealed that, according to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, the foundation lacks an operational Internal Committee (IC).
Finally, the health department official who conducted the october 2 inspection of the Isha Clinic reported discovering expired IV sets, venflon, Urobag, and endotracheal tube (ET) tubes in the emergency department. Moreover, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) license for the X-ray machine, which was requested in 2022, has not yet been granted. The officer also discovered that Dr. Sushanth, whose registration is in telangana rather than tamil Nadu, and an unqualified individual took the X-rays.
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