Did six people disappear from the Isha Yoga Center?
The claim
Headlines say people mysteriously disappear from the Coimbatore center. In March 2024 The Wire reported that police had told the Madras High Court six people had gone missing from the center since 2016. Isha called that headline false.
What the police report actually said
The count comes from a status report the Coimbatore police filed in the Supreme Court in October 2024, during the habeas case about the two adult monks. The Hindu, The News Minute and the Indian Express all reported the same figures from that report, filed by K. Kartikeyan, Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore.
Six missing-person cases were registered at Alandurai police station, the station for the center, over 15 years. Five were closed because the people were found. One was still under investigation because the person had not been traced. The report did not, in the news accounts, spell out the circumstances of each case.
Isha's reading of the same report adds two points the news write-ups do not independently confirm. The open case was filed by the foundation itself, after a person who had stepped outside the center could not be reached, and the family was informed. The five closed cases, Isha says, were visitors who got lost on the way home, a miscommunication, or a phone that was not receiving calls. Isha also puts the six reports against more than 75 million visitors in that period. That visitor number is Isha's, not a figure in the police report as quoted by the papers.
What this does not cover
The same status report listed other matters: seven cases under the old Section 174 procedure for unnatural deaths, a sexual-assault complaint from a 2021 course that was later withdrawn, and an FIR on alleged encroachment of land marked for tribal communities. Those are separate allegations, and the land one is on the tribal land page. This page is only the missing-person count.
Still missing: the 23-page status report itself. With it, the five closed cases and the one open case can be named, instead of summarized. Send it to sadhguruallegations@gmail.com.
Sources
- The Hindu, 17 Oct 2024
- The News Minute, 18 Oct 2024
- Indian Express, 18 Oct 2024
- Isha on the missing-persons headline
- The Wire, 24 Mar 2024, the earlier headline