POCSO case against staffers of Isha Foundation school

Chennai: Coimbatore Police have registered a first information report (FIR) against four administrators and a former student of a school run by the Isha Foundation under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The FIR, a copy of which is with DH, has been registered based on a complaint from the parents of another former student of alleged sexual assault by a student between 2017 and 2019.

The complaint filed by the parents of the survivor say that their child was allegedly molested and harassed at Isha Home School by a fellow student, whose name has been withheld.

The FIR has named the student, hostel warden Nishanth Kumar, Preeti Kumar, Prakash Somayaji, and Swami Vibu from the Isha Yoga Centre as accused and have booked them under sections 9(I), 10, 21(2) of the POCSO Act and 342 of IPC.

The FIR was registered on January 31, 2025 by the All Women Police Station in Perur, Coimbatore, but the police gave a copy of the document to the parents only on March 28. “Only on the instructions of the court, we were provided with a copy of the FIR,” the mother of the survivor told DH.

“The survivor was molested and harassed at Isha Home School on many occasions by fellow student…,” the parents alleged in the complaint, adding that their child did complain to his “house parents” (warden) Nishant Kumar and Preeti Kumar but they told him “not to tell us about” the sexual assault.

The parents came to know about the incident in March 2019 when their son wrote them an email complaining about the fellow student’s repeated behaviour of forcing himself upon him and the efforts by the management to hush up the incident.

Since the school insisted that they should speak to their son only over phone, the parents wrote an email and sought an audience with Jaggi Vasudev, the founder of Isha Yoga Centre. “He (Jaggi Vasudev) never gave us an opportunity to either talk to him or tell him what happened in person…we realised that the school was very reluctant to take up the case,” the parents said in their complaint.

The FIR also mentions that the school management told the parents that they were informed that the boy belongs to a very elite family and “nothing much could be done.” The management also said they could have taken action if the victim was a girl, the parents alleged in the complaint and added that their child developed suicidal tendencies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The parents had also held a press conference last year to talk about the alleged sexual assault of their child.

In its reaction, Isha Foundation termed the allegations as “false, malicious, and defamatory” and said their allegations were duly investigated and addressed.

“Since a case of bullying was found, the other boy was issued a migration certificate. After the incident, the elder son continued at the school for another three years, requested recommendation letters from his teachers, and was granted the same. Notably, three months after the alleged incident, the parents applied for admission to the school for their younger son, who was about seven years old," a statement said.

The mother also volunteered at IHS from June 2022 and her association with the school was terminated by March 2024 due to complaints from students and parents.

“Disgruntled by her removal, she has been attempting to twist the situation into false allegations of sexual harassment. This is a calculated effort to malign the reputation of the school and the ashram, and we have initiated appropriate legal action,” the statement added.