Gujarat HC disposes of habeas corpus plea after woman denies being detained by ISKCON priests

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday disposed of a petition filed by a former army personnel after his daughter appeared before the judges and said she was living with her husband and was not held in captivity by anyone.

Shelsing Rajpurohit had filed a petition seeking the writ of `habeas corpus' whereby a court can ask any authority to produce a person who has been allegedly detained or kept in confinement illegally.

The matter was taken up on an urgent basis after Rajpurohit's daughter, an adult woman, appeared in the chamber of Justices A Y Kogje and Samir Dave on Monday, stating she was legally married to the man with whom her father had accused her of eloping.

The court on Tuesday allowed her to go wherever she wanted, with police protection, as she expressed concern about her safety. She also refused to meet her parents.

The petitioner had claimed that some priests at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Ahmedabad city "brainwashed" his daughter, following which she eloped with one of them on July 27, 2024, taking 23 tola of gold and Rs 3,62,000 in cash from the house.

The priests administered her drugs and she was in their illegal confinement somewhere in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, the petition claimed.