Hare Krishna organization sued for alleged child abuse


Cases In The News:
June 12, 2000

"HARE KRISHNA" SUED FOR CHILD ABUSE

Today 44 young adults filed a $400 million dollar damage suit against the "Hare Krishna" for sexual, physical and emotional torture inflicted upon them as children. The suit says Plaintiffs were sexually, physically and emotionally abused, along with hundreds of other children, who were kept during two decades at Hare Krishna’s boarding schools.

The suit, filed in the Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas, names the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS (ISKCON) as the lead defendant, along with sixteen other ISKCON entities and seventeen individual members of its GOVERNING BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, including the Estate of the movement’s founder, BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA. The Plaintiffs reside in various cities in the United States, Canada and England.


Dallas trial lawyer WINDLE TURLEY, attorney for the plaintiffs, said today, "This lawsuit describes the most unthinkable abuse and maltreatment of little children which we have seen. It includes rape, sexual abuse, physical torture and emotional terror of children as young as three years of age. The worst of the practices spanned two decades, starting in 1972 with ISKCON’s first school in Dallas, Texas. The abuse continued in a half-dozen other schools in the United States and eventually at two boys’ schools in India.

"Although the leadership in ISKCON has long been aware of the mistreatment and abuse inflicted upon little children entrusted to it to raise, the full scope and profound maltreatment of its children has only recently been exposed.

"We believe the facts as they are developed will reveal more than a thousand child victims, many of whom have already taken their own lives or are today emotionally and socially dysfunctional.

"Elements within this new religious movement have attempted to operate outside the child protection laws of a half-dozen states. As a result, a generation of ISKCON children are permanently, and many profoundly, injured."

The suit also seeks a Federal injunction to force ISKCON to stop all forms of child abuse.

More details of the child abuse and of the plaintiffs’ legal claims, including Racketeering-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), are set out in the Complaint.  

Click here to view the original Turley complaint in PDF format.  You must have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view this document.
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For more information contact Widle Turley on his homepage, phone or email:

Windle Turley, attorney              
6440 North Central Expressway
Dallas, Texas                         
fon 214/691-4025
fax 214/361-5802

email: win@wturley.com
homepage: http://www.wturley.com/attorneys/windle_turley.htm

 


Letter to Windle Turley lawyers

Prabhupada poison investigation


Date: 20. June, 2000
by Urdhvaga das

To: Mr. Windle Turley, attorney              
6440 North Central Expressway
Dallas, Texas                         
fon 214/691-4025
fax 214/361-5802
email: win@wturley.com
homepage: http://www.wturley.com/attorneys/windle_turley.htm


Dear Mr. Windle Turley

We very much appreciate the Hare Krishna Lawsuit initiated by your Firm to do justice to the abused children of Iskcon.

While your letter of indictment may be right in the accusation of the ISKCON GBC Leaders, it is completely untrue in the section 35 Plaintiffs Original Complaint where you also wrongly charge the Founder of the institution, Srila Prabhupada, with concealment of wrongdoing from the public.

Plaintiffs Original Complaint, page 14 section 35

35. „The founder of the institution, Prabhupada, was informed in 1972, at a time when he totally controlled the institution, that extensive physical and sexual abuse of minor ISKCON children was occurring. But he concealed the wrongdoing from the public, parents and all but a handful of close advisors".

This claim is completely false, which can be proven from Prabhupada's personal letters and correspondence as well as witnesses present during his lifetime.

We herewith urge and plead that you remove this erroneous conclusion of yours from the section 35 Plaintiffs Original Complaint and make a public statement that the founder of the institution, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was in no way whatsoever responsible for any wrongdoings.

The massive molestation of Hare Krishna Children started after the demise of the founder Srila Prabhupada.

I was personally present in the boy school of Vrindavana, India when the GBC replaced Dr. Sharma and physically kicked out such good teachers as Yasodanandan Swami who was replaced with a known homosexual paedophile Bhavananda Swami alias Charles Bacis, as the school principal. (Charles Bacis’ sexual perversions were known by the GBC, and still they gave him control over the boys) see internal GBC report

I am ready to testify in any court if necessary and you also can interview Yasodanandan Swami who was in charge at that time.

Another big supporter of the homosexual GBC/guru clique is Jayapataka Swami alias Gordon John Erdman, who to this day, protects such notorious child molesters as Satadhanya alias Stanley Fedderof, a bogus Swami, in the Iskcon Mayapur school near Calcutta, India.

I further like to request you to look into the possibilities of a follow up case of the wrongful death of the founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada in his final days personally complained that arsenic poison had been given to him via his food.
He did not want to eat food cooked by his disciples, but his request, that his sister should cook for him, was denied by the Iskcon GBC/Guru clique.

Prabhupada’s personal poison complaints have been recorded on tape and are available, as well as other incriminating evidence, such as an analysis of his hair, containing arsenic ten times higher the normal level.
Detailed Infos will be sent to you on request.

We strongly believe that Srila Prabhupada was murdered in his final days by poisoning him to death, most likely by a coterie of his ambitious secretaries, who have been, since then, posing as his successor gurus for the sake of exploiting the members and assets of the society, plundering Prabhupada’s legacy, perverting his movement, books and philosophy.

Again, we herewith request you to open up a formal, fullfledged and official investigation into the unnatural death of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.


Respectfully Yours,
Urdhvaga Das