by Karen Jonson
In November of 2011, the Guru Escape Crew finally succeeded in obtaining a fake passport for Prakash and creating an escape plan. At first, it was believed that they hired a private plane to fly him from Mexico to India. But I later learned that, in fact, he and one or two others had traveled from Mexico to India on a series of three merchant ships: first, from Ensenada, Mexico to Suva, Fiji; then from Suva, Fiji to Singapore; and then from Singapore to Kolkata, India. My sources reported that for the journey he disguised himself by shaving his beard, cutting his hair, and wearing a sari with the fabric pulled over his face to appear as if he was an old Indian woman.
Once in India, he stayed hidden in Kolkata for a while before returning to his stomping grounds closer to Kripalu. I also hear, some of his wealthy devotees had purchased a home for him in Delhi. But for a while he stayed on the move—either in a series of wealthy devotees’ homes or in Kripalu’s oldest daughter’s home in Mussoorie.
Many people have asked me some version of: “Why didn’t they arrest the many people who aided and abetted the convicted felon in his escape?” Of course, I wondered that, too. I have since learned that the reality of arresting people in these circumstances: It turns out that it’s not as easy as you might think to arrest people for aiding and abetting fugitives from justice. You need specific evidence—and lots of it. And if people live in different parts of the world, you need the cooperation of law enforcement from those areas. Among the ways his escape crew members stayed free from prosecution was by dividing up the many tasks involved in keeping Prakash hidden. This way it was difficult to gather enough evidence on any one person to prosecute him or her.
Unfortunately, capturing the bad guys is rarely as easy in the real world as it is on TV shows and in the movies.
120
Kripalu Dies
Auspicious or Suspicious?
IN EARLY NOVEMBER 2013, KRIPALU fell, bumped his head, and died.
At least that was the first report of his demise. Later, two other stories emerged: One that supported the “god incarnate” fabrication that JKP propagates, and one decidedly darker version of events—which includes two murders.
Hinduism is filled with stories of glorious divine deaths. Some saints, it’s been said, have left this planet and ascended back to the divine world in a manner befitting his or her status. Among the most famous is Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is said to have ran into a stone deity and disappeared, leaving an orange smudge on the statue. I know from my days in the ashram that many devotees assumed Kripalu would leave the Earth in an even grander display of divinity—because, after all, he was “greater than Chaitanya.”
So how did Kripalu leave this Earth? He sustained a head injury so grave it put him into a coma, in which he “lived” for about a week on life support, until his three daughters agreed to turn off the equipment. So much for grand departures!
It didn’t take long for the three daughters and their helpers to reshape this story into some face-saving, mythmaking ending for his life. What I heard from my sources was a fairly weak fairy tale along these lines: The day he “ascended” he had been sitting in a chair (in his bedroom, conveniently out of general view) with a smile on his face looking very much alive. Then his servants realized that his soul was no longer in his body: Yet, his body still looked alive. They pronounced that his soul had gone to the divine abode, leaving his body behind in all its lifelike glory! Likely the only people buying this story were the followers, who are known to believe any JKP pronouncement, no matter how ludicious or suspicious.
What the organization didn’t count on was the truth getting out—and it was much, much worse than a “jagadguru falling, bonking his head, and dying of a brain injury.” It was, allegedly, murder—and at the hands of a few of his closest followers. Of course, I wasn’t there and neither were my sources. So I’m just speculating, because the insiders will never reveal the truth. However, based on everything I heard from multiple sources and everything I know about this organization, I believe the following version of events surrounding the suspicious demise of the self-proclaimed guru formerly known as Kripalu.
* * *
Here’s what I heard: Kripalu had been increasingly paranoid after the arrest of another Hindu guru in India for raping a 16-year-old girl. In fact, this event sent a ripple of fear throughout his whole crew, including his daughters, especially after the other guru’s family members were also arrested for aiding and abetting him in his criminal activities. Since Kripalu had allegedly raped hundreds of underage girls over the course of his 60-year guru career—with the direct help of many family members and followers—the fear that he, and perhaps those who helped him, would be arrested and finally convicted, was very real, I suspect.
I can’t help but think that I had some part in this development—thanks to my book. For the first sixty years of Kripalu’s reign, the majority of people following him did not know about his secret sex factory and other abhorrent behavior. Some people had heard rumors, snippets of events, but had not heard the whole story. So it was easy for them to dismiss random bits of information as gossip—and go on their merry way believing he was god. After his arrest in Trinidad, some secrets were exposed online—however, JKP apparently worked around the clock to bury that information deep in the bowels of the Internet. But, with the publication of my book, many of Kripalu’s and JKP’s dirty secrets were finally revealed in one organized document.
What’s more, I released the first edition of this book on February 15th 2012, the day that JKP was celebrating the opening of its largest and most garish temple, Prem Mandir in Vrindaban. The local online news magazine, Vrindavan Today, published a story about my book. The editor told me that it was the most read story in its history. At one point there were over 200 comments (many were lost when the website was redesigned). I believe that the revelation of Kripalu’s secrets in my book helped contribute to his growing paranoia. Now he could no longer lie and hide the truth from those who were brave enough to accept the truth.
His rampant paranoia likely created an atmosphere of constant friction, combined with self-preservation among the inner circle members. For example, when Kripalu’s main helper, Neelu, discovered that her lover, Nagraj, a man who had been Kripalu’s personal chauffer for 25 years, was engaging in carnal activities with other women, she made threats. In retaliation, Nagraj threatened to expose Kripalu’s people, including those helping him rape girls and those handling his financial empire. He even claimed to have photographic and video evidence.
People at the center of this controversy apparently took these threats seriously, and like something out of a Shakespearean tragedy decided that Nagraj had to go. Soon after that Nagraj was either forced out or chose to leave the ashram under duress. With no family or friends to take him in, he stayed in a motel in a nearby city. He reached out to a few people, including one man I was in contact with. But no one gave him the support he needed. Within weeks of leaving the ashram, Nagraj was found hanging from a rope in his motel room in Faridabad. Because no one requested an inquiry into his death (a requirement to launch an investigation), it was ruled a “suicide.”
If the parties who allegedly brought about his demise thought their troubles would be over by getting rid of Nagraj, they underestimated the ripple effect. As I understand it, the result was that it angered Kripalu and made him even more paranoid. Plus, he’d somehow found evidence of money being spent and moved around without his permission, such as property purchased in other people’s names and money moved into personal accounts. As greedy as he was about money, it’s natural that he was upset by this alledged development.
What’s more, he had apparently become a nervous wreck, because a reporter from Lucknow had decided to research Nagraj’s death. As I heard the story, Kripalu blamed a couple of his close male followers for forcing Nagraj out and “contributing” to his death. Apparently, the offending parties soon grew tired of Kripalu’s paranoia, anger, and constant rebukes.
Making matters worse, out of
fear and likely declining mental health, Kripalu was becoming hyper-focused on collecting as much money as possible every day (more so than usual, apparently), heard. Was this because he believed that having even more money than he already had would ensure his freedom from arrest, as it had for decades? After all, knowing who to pay off and how much was a normal part of Kripalu’s operation over the years to stay one-step ahead of the law. I was told that, in his final weeks, he was constantly asking his money managers: “How much money did we collect today? How much did you deposit in the bank today?”
As I heard the story, all of the anxiety and various machinations created an environment that was like a runaway train speeding out of control down a one-way track. And it all crashed and burned sometime between the evening of November 10th and the early morning of November 11th—during an argument between Kripalu and two people who helped manage JKP. Apparently, at some point during that private meeting in his bedroom, he became so angry that he told them to leave his ashram. Then early on the 11th, Kripalu was “discovered” lying on his bathroom floor with his head bashed in.
Apparently, the powers-that-be moved his nearly dead body to his bed and pondered what to do next. When the three sisters and the ashram managers couldn’t decide what to do, they called the fixer—Prakash, who was staying in Faridabad. He came running and devised a scheme to achieve what everyone allegedly wanted by that point—Kripalu out of the picture permanently. Although once the shining head of the beast, Kripalu, with his long history of rape and his current anger over so many issues spinning out of his control, was now a liability for everyone.
Thus began an extended drama to get him medical attention—including several curious decisions. For starters, even though Kripalu owned a helicopter, his handlers chose to drive him to a small local hospital in Allahabad. It was a curious choice, in particular, because the road between Mangarh and Allahabad was under construction, which would significantly slow their journey.
Of course, the medical team in Allahabad immediately determined that they could not treat his traumatic head injury. It was only then that he was flown to a specialty hospital near Delhi. By the time his body entered this hospital more than 12 hours had passed since he was found bleeding on his bathroom floor. A medical doctor, who did not treat Kripalu, told me that if Kripalu wasn’t dead already, his brain would have been dying every minute he was not receiving medical care. I later heard his brain was at least 60 percent dead by the time he arrived in the Delhi hospital. Another doctor, who didn’t treat him, but was on the scene, stated he was, indeed, beyond saving when he arrived. And, yet, the “grieving” family insisted he be treated, first with an operation and then put on life support. Meanwhile, the organization posted messages irregularly on Facebook to update followers, at first reporting that he was “doing well following surgery.” Many followers posted messages of love and support, clearly bereft at the thought of losing their leader.
After a few days of their “life support” charade and after consulting with my sources, I posted on my Facebook page that he was, in fact, already dead. It took the three daughters a few more days to stop lying and admitted the truth. I can’t help but think that devotees were getting more information from my Facebook updates than they were from JKP.
Next, came a huge, elaborate funeral, which, to no surprise, they turned into a moneymaking event. One scheme was to sell Kripalu’s “ashes.” However, apparently his body didn’t produce a large enough supply to meet the projected demand. To create more ashes, extra wood was brought in for his fire. But when even that didn’t produce enough product, they added ashes from other miscellaneous fires.
And therein lies the sad tale of the mundane demise of my ex-guru, the self-appointed “guru of the universe,” who departed this world just like any other mortal.
He left not a smudge on a statue—but a stain on the Hindu religion and every person he touched.
121
The Truth Hurts
A Campaign to Shut Me Up?
EARLY ON THE MORNING OF JULY 25, 2013, I received a phone call from the company that hosted my RishikaXcult blog, where I wrote about my life in and out of the JKP cult.
The technical support person told me my account had been deactivated due to a DDoS (pronounced “dee-doss”) attack that had occurred overnight. It had taken down their entire operation, even though my blog was the only one attacked. DDoS stands for “denial of service.” A DDoS attack is an attempt by anonymous hackers to bring down websites by sending traffic from multiple sources all at one time and, thereby, overwhelm a site’s hosting service. It’s used by the most despicable cybercriminals to wreck havoc on companies. Of course, it’s illegal and punishable by law. The problem is that it’s difficult to find the sources.
I learned the attack on my account was especially vicious—it was hit at the rate of 10 gigabits per second. That’s the same level of attack used by cybercriminals to bring down WikiLeaks in 2012. Experts say even an attack of one gigabit per second is enough to crash large websites. Launching such an intense attack is not a small thing. It would have taken considerable resources—including a lot of money. A technical person I know said, “Whoever did that was serious.”
Clearly they were. But who would level such an attack on my tiny little blog? Who would have anything to gain from such an expensive attack? My tech guy, who is a high-level software engineer, did some research, including searching the logs of the network/server requests. But there was no way to find a source as the attack came from multiple computers around the world.
While I have no proof, I think it’s pretty obvious who was behind the attack. One thing that saved me from utter destruction was an action I had taken in July just by chance. I can’t say what that action was, because the cult still monitors me as much as possible.
Interestingly, just one month prior to the DDoS attack, I had experienced another takedown. I received an email from YouTube, where I was hosting my book trailer video. It said: “We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from Sapna Arora claiming that this material is infringing (on a copyright): Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus book trailer.”
I had created and launched my book trailer over a year prior. No one had said anything. Then out of nowhere someone complained—one month before the DDoS attack. I reviewed the video footage and only found a couple of photographs for which anyone could claim copyright infringement. They appeared for a second or two. Had I not used them, “Sapna” would have had no legal claim.
However, even that was not the first time someone had attempted to shut me up. I had been operating a Facebook page for over a year that I called “The Truth Project for Barsana Dham and JKP.” However, after Prakash’s escape, Kripalu changed the name of the ashram from Barsana Dham to Radha Madhav Dham. I felt that using the old name on my Facebook page was a liability. So I changed it. That very day someone else started using my old name, and began posting malicious commentary about me as if they were me.
But still that wasn’t everything. There was even an attempt to have Amazon remove my book from its site. This time I had direct evidence that JKP was the perpetrator because Amazon sent me one of the emails it received from Radha Madhav Society:
Hi,
We are still looking for appropriate action to be taken from Amazon regarding our issue. As per your commitment your investigating team has not reached out us for further investigation.
This book has already impacted many followers emotion which your investigating team cannot visualize.
The author's book is based on her memory as he/she has mentioned in the book. The author has blamed the non profit organization for sexual abuse and other crime charges to tarnish the reputation of the jagadguru Kripalu Parishat(JKP) organization without proof.
The author has used the names of the persons whom we know personally and they denied from exchanging any words with the author for her book. We can provide you the written statement of the person whom t
he author has addressed in his/her book for your reference.
Many Hindu religion people are associated with this organization and the information like this could lead to the violence. The author has no right to publish such defamatory and false stories. The author is spreading illegal product via your website.
We want you to ban this product from your website asap.
(ISSUE: Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus: How I Was Conned By a Dangerous Cult-and Why I Will Not Keep Their Secrets) book
Regards,
Radha Madhav Society
Amazon’s response to them was that it was not responsible for investigating the millions of books available on its site, and that Radha Madhav Society had to take up the matter with me directly. Curiously, the organization sent the email two years after my book was first published. I don’t recall any “violence” ignited by my book during that time — and I think I would remember something like that. Apparently, they decided to try another route, because a few months later I received an email from some law firm in India with the following message:
Dear Sir/ Mam,
Please Find the attached copy of legal notice, sent on behalf of our Client, Mr Chatarpal Singh regarding the publishing and sale of the book "SEX LIES AND TWO HINDU GURUS".
M A X I M®
Advocates & Law Consultants
A Registered Law Firm established since 2000
Corp.Off. C-4/70A, Lawrence Road, Keshav Puram, Delhi-35
I ignored both.
I also learned of another attempt to shut me up when an Indian man named Vijay Mehta told me he received an email as if it was from me requesting that he remove anything I’d ever shared about Prakash and JKP on his blog. When I told him it wasn’t me, he said: “I should have know, because they called me Vijay and you always call me Dr. Mehta.”
While each of these attacks was unsettling, I put it in context and remembered whom I was dealing with. While writing my book, I knew that telling the long-held dark and twisted secrets of this cult was not going to be easy. For one thing, it has a lot of dedicated followers with a wide range of skills. For another, the cult is filthy rich. The powers-that-be could afford to continue attacking me in any way they could think of.
