Madras HC questions Sadhguru's Isha Foundation over women renouncing worldly lives
Chennai: The founder of the Isha Foundation, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, has come under fire from the Madras High Court for pushing young women to renounce their material lives even though he had arranged his daughter's marriage. The court questioned this while hearing a case filed by retired professor S. Kamaraj, who stated that his two highly educated daughters had been "brainwashed" into living permanently at the Isha Yoga Centre.
Judges S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam's bench seemed uncomfortable when the two women—ages 42 and 39—appeared in court today. The two women argued, however, that they were not being kept against their will and were staying at the Isha Foundation of their own free will. The parents testified that their lives were permanently damaged because their daughters had "abandoned" them, and this was as much evidence as they had been claiming for the entire ten years of this lawsuit.
In response, the Isha Foundation made it clear that participants voluntarily join the group. "We honor personal preferences. People travel to Isha for a variety of reasons, including marriage and monastic life, but they are not forced to do either," a Foundation spokesman stated. They claim that there is only one case against the organization that is pending at the police stations right now, and that the court has halted another.
However, the court desired further investigation. It demanded a list of every case involving the Isha Foundation. The court's intimation implied, in a sense, that the investigation had been scoped up. Sivagnanam laughed, "We want to understand why somebody who arranged for his own daughter's marriage is encouraging other daughters to shave their heads and live like hermits."
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
