Recently, the Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition alleging child kidnapping by Swami Nithyananda. The plea, which accused the religious leader of abducting children, was rejected by the court, indicating a legal setback for the accusers.
Gujarat: Recently, the Gujarat High Court dismissed a habeas corpus petition against the self-proclaimed spiritual Guru Swami Nithyananda on 2 February. The petition accused him of abducting children and forcing them to solicit donations from his followers to support his ashram. However, the case was closed after the children involved presented evidence through a video call, affirming that they had not been forced into these actions by anyone.
Background
The petitioner approached the Gujarat High Court with a plea for the custody of their two daughters, reportedly under unlawful detention at a facility operated by the controversial Guru, Swami Nithyananda. The parents discovered that their daughters had been transferred to Yogini Sarvagyapeetham, located within the Delhi Public School campus in Ahmedabad, part of Nithyananda Dhyanpeetham’s network.
Despite their efforts to reconnect with their daughters, the institute’s officials allegedly denied them access, prompting the couple to involve the police. Their intervention enabled the retrieval of their two younger daughters from the facility. However, their adult daughters, Lopamudra Janardhana Sharma, aged 21, and Nandhita, aged 18, chose not to leave with them, the legal filing states.
The petitioner further claims that the couple’s minor children were held against their will for over two weeks, subjected to sleep deprivation among other grievances, leading to the filing of an FIR against the institution’s officials. The Sharmas are now urging the High Court to order law enforcement and the institute to present their daughters in court and restore their parental custody, alleging the young women are in “wrongful confinement.“
In November 2019, Janardhana Sharma filed a petition claiming his daughters, Lopamudra (also known as Tatvapriya) and Nandhitha (also known as Nityanandita), were held in unlawful detention at the Ahmedabad ashram of the self-proclaimed spiritual leader Nithyananda. Following Nithyananda’s escape from India, it was alleged that the two were forcibly taken abroad. They were eventually found in Jamaica, leading their father to request their return.
