New Delhi: Summoning students at midnight, sending them lewd texts, coercing them to go out on trips with him, and threatening to ruin their careers if they refused. The allegations against absconding self-styled godman Chaitanyananda Saraswati paint a picture of gross abuse of power, enabled by his “cronies” through silence, and intimidation.
Chaitanyananda, the director and chairman of the Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management-Research in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, has been accused of serial sexual harassment, blackmail, and coercion by 32 students whose testimonies are now documented in an FIR against him. All 32 students are aged between 21 and 27 years.
The FIR also implicates at least three faculty members, alleging one of them not only turned a blind eye to students’ complaints against him but also forced “women students to oblige Chaitanyananda Saraswati’s sexual overtures”.
The 62-year-old would also threaten to withhold students’ degrees and documents if they refused to give in to his demands, according to the FIR registered at Vasant Kunj North police station on 5 August under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 75(2) (punishment for sexual harassment), 79 (hurting a woman’s modesty), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation).
Even as the Delhi Police continues to conduct raids in the national capital, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand following the issuance of a lookout circular against him, his counsel informed a Delhi court hearing his anticipatory bail plea Friday that the self-styled godman had fled the country before the FIR was lodged.
The court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.
P.A. Murali, the CEO and administrator of the institute’s parent body Sri Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya Mahasamsthanam Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri, has also lodged the FIR against Chaitanyananda and other accused.
Murali said criminal complaints have been filed against them on several counts, the Peetham has severed all ties with Chaitanyananda, and is taking steps to restore the “sanctity” attached to the institution. He added that most students at the institute are from economically weaker sections, and many have parents in the armed forces.
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‘Traumatised students’
According to the FIR lodged on 5 August, the institute’s parent body had received complaints about Chaitanyananda’s conduct before the police case was lodged.
The FIR mentions that, on 31 July, the Peetham received a “communication” from a student of the 2023-25 batch of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) course, detailing various allegations against him.
A group captain-rank officer in the Air Force also wrote an email to the Peetham on 1 August, saying she had received multiple complaints against Chaitanyananda.
Amid the complaint against the institute’s MD and chairman, the Peetham constituted a governing council on 31 July under the chairmanship of Krishna Venkatesh, an educationalist, researcher, and scientist to manage the institute’s affairs.
On 3 August, the governing council had a virtual conference with more than 30 women students. A former student told the governing council that Chaitanyananda and a few of his “cronies” sexually harassed and traumatised women students, according to the FIR.
“Students from economically weaker sections were being forced to visit Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati at his quarters late at night; they were sent inappropriate and lewd messages via WhatsApp/SMS. Female students were threatened if they did not respond to messages, sexual overtures by Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati,” read the FIR.
Further, the FIR added, cameras were installed inside women’s hostels on the pretext of security, and women students were forced to accompany Chaitanyananda on foreign trips.
“Associate Dean, Shwetha, along with a few other cronies of Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati, forced women students to oblige Chaitanyananda Saraswati’s sexual overtures and turned a blind eye to complaints against him,” the FIR said.
Students ‘fear for their lives’
The FIR said students were indiscriminately threatened with suspensions and rustication, and the institute created an atmosphere where the parents could also not intervene.
When ThePrint visited the campus Wednesday, no student was willing to talk about Chaitanyananda or the allegations against him. The FIR mentioned an instance where a student was forced to change her name against her wishes “and there is a grave sense of fear which has gripped the women students, and they fear for their lives”.
Murali said in the complainant, “Since women students have been subjected to extreme acts of sexual harassment and unprofessional behaviour by Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati and certain other staff members, we request that the same be investigated immediately to ensure that female students are protected from the atrocities of Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati and his cronies.”
After police received the complaint on 4 August, they conducted an inquiry and recorded statements of the 32 students, including a 21-year-old PGDM student who was studying on a scholarship since her father is employed with the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
During the time of her admission, there were 20 women in her class from economically weaker sections, but there are 16 now. “All 16 girls live in the hostel and are not allowed to go outside. They can only go there for one hour,” according to the FIR.
It added that the students follow a strict routine on campus which includes yoga, meditation, prayers and chanting of verses from the Bhagavad Geeta.
Murali said in the complaint that during an interaction with him, another student told him that she met Chaitanyananda 10 days before the Diwali vacation last year at his office on the ground floor of the main building. “In my first interaction with Swami ji, he looked at me in a very strange manner and demotivated me,” she said.
The woman had suffered a hairline fracture in her left leg after a fall from the hostel stairs. Her senior advised her to send her X-ray reports to ‘Swami Ji,’ and the woman complied.
“He started sending me a lot of messages at inappropriate and odd times. ‘Baby, I love you, I adore you, you are looking beautiful today’. He complimented my curly hair etc. If I ignored these messages then ‘Swami Ji’ would tag the same message and send it again and ask me to reply,” she told Murali, according to the FIR.
When the complainant informed her associate dean about this, she was told “he is the head here and she would have to reply”. She then started reaching out to her seniors who told her that they too were “troubled” by Chaitanyananda. When the complainant stopped replying to the accused’s messages, notices were issued in her name for allegedly manipulating attendance. Her marks in exams were deducted unnecessarily, she alleged.
In March 2025, the woman and her friends had to accompany the accused to Rishikesh on his insistence to perform a puja for his new BMW car. There also, he continued to message her, even at 12:30 in the night, asking her to meet him. While returning, she along with a few others travelled with the accused in his new car.
On the way, the accused played songs and even made inappropriate comments aimed at her and the women female students. The day after returning from Rishikesh, her teachers called her and asked her “to resign” from a post she held within the institution.
They took her phone and deleted the entire chat with the accused, which contained all the inappropriate messages. They also assured her that nothing like this would happen to her after this, she said. “Shweta Ma’am (the associate dean) forced me to send an apology mail to Swami ji. After this, Swami ji started sending me inappropriate messages through WhatsApp and mail,” she alleged, according to the FIR.
‘Not allowed to sit for exams’
The FIR also alleged that during Holi this year, on the orders of the associate dean, all the women students were made to stand in a queue and instructions were given that no one would apply colour to anyone before the accused. “We had to say Hariom to Swami ji first and then bow down, after which Swami ji would apply colour on the parting of hair and cheeks,” the complainant said.
After Holi, the complainant said, the accused called her to his office and kept talking to her. “He called me Baby, and when I protested, he took out his phone and made a video of me and sent it to me on WhatsApp. He wrote that you are looking beautiful. He forcibly asked me to shake his hands,” she said.
In June 2025, at least 35 students went to Rishikesh on an industry visit with the accused. They stayed at Dayanand Saraswati Ashram near the ghats, where the accused allegedly made advances towards them at odd hours.
Whenever the accused went out, a few students were picked out to accompany him.
“When I protested, I was not allowed to sit for the module during the first semester’s third exams and marks were deducted in the remaining exams,” she alleged.
And when she informed her parents, the accused blocked their numbers. “He even threatened me through a professor, stating he would get my brother arrested through the Superintendent of Police, Haldwani.”
She said she had proof and all the details, but was scared since all her original documents are deposited with the institute, and have not been returned, despite her requests. She also mentioned that on multiple occasions, the accused touched her head and hands and threatened her when she protested. She also said he forcibly took her with him on trips.
The other accused
Several students, who gave their statements to the police and the magistrate, have also levelled allegations against their faculty members—associate dean Shweta, director (operations) Bhawna, and professor Kajal Kapil. The students claim the three pressured them to “meet inappropriate demands” of Chaitanyananda.
Police sources told ThePrint that, based on the content of complaint, statements of the students and probe so far, it has been found that most aggrieved students, especially from economically weaker sections, were subjected to mental as well as physical harassment by Chaitanyananda and his associates.
Owing to financial constraints back home, the students had no other option but to meet various unwanted demands raised by Chaitanyananda, sources added. Apart from their financial conditions, the original educational certificates of the complainants were kept on hold by him and his associates, which meant their careers were also at stake.
“There is a possibility that few of the victims may be physically exploited during the period and they are not coming forward due to their family and social pressure and also prospect of their career. In future, if any such complaint comes to notice, appropriate sections will be amended accordingly,” the FIR said.
Investigators have sought hard disks and analysed CCTV footage from the institute. They also found a Volvo car, with a fake UN registration number, which was used by Chaitanyananda.
The Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, which runs the Vasant Kunj institute, released a statement last month, days after complaining to the police about Chaitanyananda.
“The public is hereby informed that Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati, formerly known as Swami (Dr) Parthasarathy has engaged in activities that are illegal, inappropriate, and detrimental to the interests of Sri Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya Mahasamsthanam Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri (Peetham). As a result, Peetham has severed all ties with him,” it said in a statement on 9 August. In the same statement, the Peetham stated that the Vasant Kunj institute operates with the approval of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and is governed by a governing council.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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