The Tamil Nadu police has registered a first-information report against four administrators and a former student of a school run by the Isha Foundation. The FIR was registered after the parents of another former student alleged that their son had been “molested and harassed” in the school by the fellow student.

The school is run by the Isha Foundation, set up in 1992 by the spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev, known to his followers as Sadhguru.

The FIR, registered at the All Women Police Station in Perur, Coimbatore, records the student’s mother’s allegations that the sexual abuse occurred between the years 2017 and 2019, while her son was enrolled in the school.

Police have registered the case under three sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and one section of the Indian Penal Code.

The sections of POCSO cited in the FIR are Section 10, which pertains to punishment for aggravated assault, section 21(2), which pertains to a failure by any person in charge of an institution to report an offence under the act, and section 9(1), which pertains to compensation that a court may order to be paid to a child after the registration of an FIR. The section of the IPC cited, 342, pertains to wrongful confinement.

In October 2024, the parents of the survivor had held a press conference in which they alleged that their son had been sexually abused by a fellow student, and that despite complaining to the school authorities, they were not offered any support. They also alleged that they had been discouraged from approaching the police.

A few days after the conference, the parents filed an online complaint with the All Women’s Police Station in Perur, Coimbatore. It was only three months later, on January 31, that the police registered an FIR.

The parents said that the police provided the parents with a copy of the FIR at the end of March. Scroll contacted the Perur station and the superintendent of police of Coimbatore district, seeking a response to the parents’ account of delays in filing the FIR and providing them with a copy. There was no response at the time of publication.

Scroll also emailed Isha Foundation and the school, seeking responses to the allegations made in the FIR. A spokesperson of Isha Foundation said: “Allegations made by the parents are false and defamatory, and we are taking appropriate legal action against them.”

The alleged abuse

The FIR records the mother’s allegations that her son wrote them an email in 2019, when he was in Class 10, informing them that he had been abused over the previous two years.

She states that she “called the school immediately” but that “they did not respond for 2 days upon which I sent a message that I will have to go to the police”.

After she threatened to go to the police, the mother states in the FIR, she received a call through WhatsApp from one of the accused staff members. Subsequently, she noticed that the staff member insisted on speaking to her only over WhatsApp calls and not over email or through a regular call, and felt that they “were not taking up the issue seriously”, she states in the FIR.

The document also records her allegation that school staffers said that the accused student “belongs to a very elite family and nothing much could be done”.

Further, the FIR notes that according to the mother, one of the accused staff members said that “if the victim was a girl he would have taken action”.

After the parents complained to the school, the FIR notes, the accused student was made to stay in the house of a “house parent coordinator” for a week and then sent back to the same hostel where their son resided. According to the school website, students stay on campus in residences known as “houses”, each of which has around 20 students, under the supervision of a “house parent”.

The alleged offender returned to school the following year, when the students were in Class 11, the FIR states.

The woman’s son had also returned to the school for his last two years of schooling. When the family arrived, they spotted their son’s alleged abuser. She states in the FIR that she “raised a serious objection and told the management that I would approach the police”. At this, the management became “scared and started to plead” with her not to do so, she alleges.

Further, the FIR notes that the mother alleged that the staff said that going to the police would affect “Sadhguru’s reputation” and would be “bad karma” for her. She alleges that the management “brainwashed” them not to report the matter to the police.

The FIR also records the mother’s allegation that she wrote several emails to Jaggi Vasudev, requesting his help with the situation, but that she did not receive any response.

The spokesperson of Isha Foundation denied the allegations made by the parents. “No such incident occurred in the school,” the spokesperson said. “In 2019, they made certain allegations and the same was duly enquired into and addressed. Since a case of bullying was found, the other boy was issued with a migration certificate.”

The Isha spokesperson added: “Their elder son then continued studies for another 3 years and requested recommendation letters from his teachers, and the same was granted… In fact, 3 months after the alleged incident, they applied for admission of their younger son, aged about 7 years, to the school.”

The spokesperson also noted that after the student left the school, the mother joined the school as a volunteer for nearly two years. “During her volunteering, [the school] observed a few issues, and she was asked to leave... After this incident, she has been raising allegations of sexual harassment and also creating negative publicity against the school and the ashram.”

The FIR notes that the mother alleged that she had been under immense pressure for speaking up about their son. It records her request to the police to act against the accused Isha staffers “for not taking appropriate measures to safeguard and protect the children from child abuse”, as well “manipulating us not to approach the police, making life threats, rape threats and death threats”.

“Ever since I made the press meet, my life has been under constant threat and harassment,” she alleges.