Tamil Nadu Police Conduct Search at Isha Foundation After High Court Order

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu police on Tuesday conducted a search operation on the premises of the Coimbatore-based Isha Foundation following Monday’s order of the Madras High Court to collect details of the criminal cases registered against it.

The 150-strong police team, led by an additional superintendent of police and three deputy superintendents, entered the campus and verified the details of the inmates and searched the rooms at the Foundation, run by self-styled Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev. The search team also had an officer from the social welfare department, sources said.

Justice S.M. Subramaniam and Justice V. Sivagnanam of the High Court had issued the search order while hearing a habeas corpus petition moved by Dr S. Kamaraj, a retired professor, alleging that the fundation had held his daughters Geetha Kamaraj, 42, and Latha Kamaraj, 39, captive and that the organisation restricted his daughters’ contact with their families.

The court also directed the additional public prosecutor representing the state government to present it a comprehensive status report by October 4 with details of all the criminal cases pending against the foundation.

The court said it was invoking Article 226 of the Constitution which has vested every High Court with the powers for the enforcement of the fundamental rights while issuing the search order. The court also took cognisance of the argument of petitioner’s lawyer that a doctor at the foundation was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (Pocso) Act.

In its response, the Isha Yoga Centre run by the Foundation said the police team conducted an inquiry.

“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 Centre said in a statement. “We believe that adult individual human beings have the freedom and the wisdom to choose their path. We do not ask people to get married or take up monkhood as these are individual choices. Isha Yoga Center is home to thousands who are not monks and a few who have taken Brahmacharya or monkhood”.

The Centre also warned that those who indulge “in spreading false information against the foundation will be strictly dealt with as per the law of the land.”