Police raid Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation after man claims his daughters were held captive, brainwashed

The Tamil Nadu police on Oct 1 launched a search operation at Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation in Coimbatore district’s Thondamuthur area, a day after the Madras High Court sought a report on the criminal cases filed against it.

At least 150 police officials led by an additional superintendent of police and comprising three deputy superintendents of police searched the foundation.

A verification of the inmates was conducted and rooms were thoroughly searched, a senior police officer was quoted as saying.

“As per the court order, the police, including the SP, have come to the Isha Yoga Center for a general inquiry. They are inquiring with residents and volunteers, understanding the lifestyle, understanding how they come in and stay, etc,” the Isha Yoga Center said in a statement.

Jaggi Vasudev who has a huge fan following is popularly known as Sadghuru across India.

On Sep 30, a bench of Justices — SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam — directed the police to conduct an inquiry after hearing a petition filed by a retired professor S Kamaraj.

The petitioner claimed that his two daughters — 42-year-old Geetha Kamaraj and 39-year-old Latha Kamaraj — were being held captive at the yoga center in the foundation.

The foundation was brainwashing individuals, converting them into monks, and restricting their contact with their families, according to S Kamaraj.

The retired professor in his petition said that his elder daughter, who had a postgraduate degree in Mechatronics from a university in the United Kingdom, earned a substantial salary before divorcing her husband in 2008.

After her divorce, she began attending yoga classes at the foundation. Subsequently, his younger daughter, who was a software engineer, followed her sister and eventually decided to stay at the center permanently, the petitioner said.

The foundation administered food and medicines to his daughters that dulled their cognitive abilities, the petition said, adding that this had led them to snap all ties with their family.

Pertinently, the bench while hearing the petition on Sep 30 expressed concerns over apparent contradictions between Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s personal life and the lifestyle he advocates for others.

The court questioned why Vasudev, who had arranged for his daughter to marry and settle into a traditional life, was allegedly encouraging young women to renounce worldly pursuits, shave their heads, and live as hermits at his yoga centers.