Isha Foundation row: TN Police submit counter in SC | Latest news India

The Tamil Nadu Police on Thursday filed its defense petition in the Supreme Court in the case related to the Jaggi Vasudev-led Isha Foundation, saying that “many who went to the center are missing and the police have not been able to trace them,” said a government statement.

The bar added that a cremation ground functions at the center, and a hospital, also operated on the premises, distributes expired medicines to the inmates. The case will be heard in the highest 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 investigating the center in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district.

The action was based on a case where a petitioner, a scientist and a retired professor of agricultural research, had moved the Madras High Court with his complaint that his two daughters, both of whom have master’s degrees in engineering, are being brainwashed by Isha. “…the foundation abuses certain individuals,” the petitioner said, by brainwashing them and “converting them into monks and not even allowing the parents and relatives to meet the imprisoned monks.”

He also drew the court’s attention to several other serious cases, including a doctor working with the Isha in the premises who has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO) sections for allegedly molesting twelve girls studying in an Adivasi government. school.

The court directed the Coimbatore Rural Police to conduct an inquiry and file a status report and adjourned the case to October 4.

A multi-disciplinary team, comprising the social welfare department, district child protection unit and child welfare committee, and led by Coimbatore Rural Superintendent of Police K Karthikeyan, began investigations on October 1. Three streams of research were conducted on the Supreme Court directions – one on the Pocso case; secondly, by collecting all criminal cases registered against Isha and reviewing their status; and third, a general investigation of all prisoners residing in the center.

The petitioner in his statement has also raised a disturbing complaint that the kind of food and medicine given to his daughters at the center has caused them to lose their cognitive skills. On June 15 around 6 p.m., 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 case against Isha, the petitioner added.

A bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam questioned in the court why Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru, encourages women to get their heads massaged and live like hermits while he ensured that his daughter was married and well was alive. The two daughters also appeared in court and said they lived downtown by choice. The foundation also stated that they could not understand the court’s concerns about the choice of two independent adults.

However, after the foundation moved the apex court, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also transferred the habeas corpus petition, alleging that the foundation had forcibly detained two young women, from the Supreme Court to itself. “These are issues of religious freedom,” Chandrachud said as reported by Bar and Bench. “This is a very urgent and serious matter. This is about Isha Foundation, there is Sadhguru who is highly revered and has many followers. The Supreme Court cannot initiate such investigations on the basis of oral statements.”