Police gives Isha Foundation clean chit in sexual abuse case

Directed by the Supreme Court last year to investigate allegations of sexual abuse of minor girls at a school run by Jaggi 'Sadhguru' Vasudev's Isha Foundation, Perur police station in Coimbatore is learned to have filed a closure report in the case. 

The investigating team claims to have questioned 61 students, 13 people working at the centre since 2017, besides staff, visitors and volunteers. None of them corroborated the allegations as per the report submitted to the Supreme Court, according to media reports.

The petitioner had lodged the complaint based on a video by Youtuber Shyam Meera Singh, who had uploaded the video on the basis of allegations made by parents of former students and unnamed former employees of the foundation. It also included images and graphic descriptions of how girls were treated during initiation and other rituals.

Justice Subramonium Prasad of Delhi High Court, however, had observed in an interim order that Singh chose to make the video based on “entirely unverified material". Besides the YouTuber, the foundation had also filed a defamation suit against Tamil media outlet Nakkheeran

, accusing it of publishing allegedly defamatory videos. Vasudev had sought the removal of the videos and demanded Rs 3 crore in damages.

Here is a timeline of the case until now:

February 2024: YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh uploaded a video titled 'Sadhguru EXPOSED: What's happening in Jaggi Vasudev's Ashram' on 24 February. He also shared the video on X, with allegations suggesting that minors were being exploited in the ashram. The video received 937K views, 65K likes and 13K comments by March 2025 when Delhi High Court, in response to a plea filed by Isha Foundation, directed the YouTuber and the platforms to take down the video.

September 2024: Madras High Courtdirected Coimbatore Police to investigate the allegations on a habeas corpus petition filed by a father alleging that his two daughters (aged 42 and 39) were being held captive at the Isha Yoga Centre run by Vasudev, and being brainwashed.

We don't ask people to take up monkhood: Sadhguru's Isha Foundation

Though the daughters (who are also monks) appeared before the high court and submitted that they were staying in the ashram of their own volition, the court observed that there were serious allegations against the institution, and sought details of criminal cases against Isha Foundation. The court also directed Coimbatore Police to investigate allegations of a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act case against a doctor at the institution and other allegations about persons being detained.

October 2024: The Supreme Court restrained Tamil Nadu Police from conducting any further enquiry against Isha Yoga Centre as directed by Madras High Court. The Supreme Court also transferred the habeas corpus petition from the high court to the Supreme Court and directed the police to submit a status report. A bench comprising then Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra passed the order. “Coimbatore Rural Police having jurisdiction shall conduct an enquiry and file a status report before this Court," the order said.

The court was informed that the two women, both adults, had told Madras High Court that they were living in the ashram voluntarily. The court was also informed by Isha Foundation counsel Mukul Rohatgi that the two women were available online for interaction with the bench. Following this, the bench retired to chambers for a virtual interaction with the women. When the bench re-assembled after the interaction, CJI Chandrachud said the women had declared that they were staying at the ashram voluntarily.

The bench recorded in the order the statement made by the two women that they were not facing any coercion at the ashram and they were free to travel; that their parents had visited them at the ashram on several occasions. In fact, one of the women had participated in a 10-km marathon.

SC stays Madras HC order for probe into Isha Foundation, transfers case to itself

October 2024:

The same month, parents of a minor boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a student at Isha Foundation in Coimbatore told the media in Hyderabad that the ashram had taken no action against the offender and they were told that nothing could be done as the offender came from an influential family. The boy's mother claimed she had volunteered for two years at the foundation until June 2024 as a political science teacher, in an attempt to learn more and find evidence of wrongdoings.

Speaking to the media at Hyderabad’s Press Club (17 October 2024), the mother said, “We found out about this during the Covid-19 lockdown. I was cleaning the house and found notes by my son where he mentioned the assault and wrote that he was feeling suicidal. Many of our emails to the foundation were replied to via WhatsApp calls, probably in an attempt to not leave any digital trail. We were told that the other boy ‘comes from an elite family’."

March 2025: Delhi High Court ordered the video to be taken down and restrained the YouTuber and also others from sharing the video based on what Justice Subramonium Prasad described as completely unverified evidence.

April 2025: Isha Foundation denied allegations made by the mother of a former student of a school run by the foundation in connection with a case registered under the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code. In a press release, the foundation stated that the claims were “false, malicious, and defamatory”. The incident referred to by the complainant was investigated in 2019. A case of bullying was identified, and the student concerned was issued a migration certificate. The foundation said no incident of sexual assault had occurred at the school.

June 2025: Coimbatore Police filed a closure report in the case of the two women monks.