Gurugram: Months after the Assembly passed the Aparna Institution (Taking Over of Management and Control) Act, 2025, Haryana government has notified the law, clearing the decks for the takeover of the multi-crore trust property in the heart of Gurugram city.
The notification was issued by Ritu Garg, Administrative Secretary to the Law and Legislative department, on 20 November.
It enables the state government to take control of one of Gurugram’s most prime properties, a 24-acre ashram worth an estimated Rs 2,400 crore. It was founded by controversial yoga guru Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari who wielded a considerable degree of influence over Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the 1970s and 1980s.
The corresponding Bill was passed by the Haryana Assembly in March this year. Governor Bandaru Dattatreya reserved it for presidential consideration under Article 201 of the Constitution. President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Bill on 27 August, and the same was notified in the Official Gazette on 20 November.
The Opposition Congress had opposed the Bill, terming it illegal and beyond the state’s jurisdiction since the Aparna Ashram Society is registered in Delhi, not Haryana.
The Aparna Institution (Taking Over of Management and Control) Act, 2025, provides the Haryana government with the rights of the management, control, and possession of the property for an initial period of 10 years starting November 20, 2025, and for an additional period of five years if deemed necessary for securing proper and efficient management of the institution and its further development.
Under the Act, the government will appoint an administrator who will exercise all powers previously held by the institution’s authority or governing council.
The Act gives sweeping powers to the Administrator, including to cancel or modify any contract, transfer, lease, agreement, or arrangement entered into in relation to the institution if the government determines, after inquiry, that such arrangements were made in bad faith or are detrimental to the institution’s interests.
The Act provides that no person affected by such cancellations shall be entitled to claim any compensation for premature termination of contracts or agreements.
It also says that anyone who wrongfully obtains possession of or withholds property or documents of the institution, removes or destroys its assets, books or papers will have to face imprisonment up to five years or a fine extending to Rs 50,000, or both.
The Act outlines 20 specific aims and objectives that align with Dhirendra Brahmachari’s original vision for the institution. These include making yoga more popular through education, research, training and dissemination; educating people in the art and science of yoga without discrimination; undertaking practical courses and training in yoga; and teaching methods of reducing mental tensions and removing mental imbalance.
These also include organising conferences, lectures, seminars and training programmes; publishing books and literature on yoga; establishing ashrams, yoga guest houses, health resorts and swimming facilities; and acquiring property necessary for furthering the institution’s objectives.
Ashram where TV serials were shot
Aparna Institution is situated on prime land in Silokhra village near Sector 30 in Gurugram. The property was acquired by Dhirendra Brahmachari during his years of influence using donations, grants, and financial assistance received from the central government.
In the 1980s, during the time Dhirendra Brahmchari enjoyed political influence, the air-conditioned ashram complex had amenities like an airstrip, an aircraft hangar, and a television studio where popular tele serials like India Quiz and Hum Log were shot.
The presence of an airstrip and hangar reflected Brahmachari’s passion for flying, which earned him the sobriquet of ‘The Flying Swami’.
In December 2020, a major controversy erupted when a sale deed was registered for the entire 24-acre property for a mere Rs 55 crore. The buyers were four Gurugram-based real estate firms.
In 2021, the Revenue department informed the Gurugram deputy commissioner that a Memorandum of Understanding between the buyer and seller had established an agreed price of Rs 12 crore per acre, which would total to Rs 288 crore for the property, while its deed was registered for Rs 55 crore, causing a huge loss of stamp duty to the government.
The property’s current value is stated to be Rs 2,400 crore, according to market sources.
Acting on the Revenue department’s objections and a subsequent inquiry, the Gurugram deputy commissioner cancelled the “fraudulent” sale deed. This cancellation was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court where the parties received no relief. The High Court upheld the deputy commissioner’s decision.
On 2 June, 2024, an FIR was registered at Sector 40 police station under charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery, presenting false evidence, besides provisions of the Registration Act and Prevention of Corruption Act. It was followed by arrests of the members of the Ashram society involved in the deal. Their bank accounts were also frozen.
In May this year, Ramanand Yadav, a senior advocate from Gurugram, was arrested by the Gurugram Police’s Economic Offences Wing for his alleged involvement in the deal. Yadav was accused of forging documents to facilitate the sale and receiving Rs 5.5 crore for the transaction.
After the Assembly passed the Bill in March, the buyers—Radox Tradex Private Ltd, SS Premium Home Private Ltd, Rosmerta Infrastructure Private Ltd, and Star Care Real Estate Private Ltd—approached the civil court at Gurugram, praying for the retrieval of whatever deal money could be recovered from the sellers and the refund of stamp duty.
On 12 July, Civil Judge (Senior Division)-cum-Presiding Officer of the National Lok Adalat in Gurugram, Ramesh Chander, “cancelled” the sale deed.
The Gurugram court order, accessed by The Print, noted that facing ongoing criminal prosecution, mounting legal costs, and reputational damage from multiple civil and criminal proceedings, the plaintiff companies decided to seek cancellation of the sale deed and recover whatever amounts they could.
The court noted that the situation became more complicated when three key members of the trust—governing council members K.S. Pathania and B.S. Pathania, and Kailash Nath Chaturvedi of M/s Shree Damodar Corporation—were arrested and sent to judicial custody at District Jail, Bhondsi, Gurugram, in connection with the FIR registered on 2 June, 2024.
Shree Damodar Corporation, arrayed as Defendant Number 8 in the suit before the Gurugram court, is a Delhi-based construction firm, which had a Collaboration and Development Agreement (CDA) with the Aparna Ashram Society, the defendant number 1.
According to the society’s rules, persons prosecuted for moral turpitude cannot continue as members, which meant these three ceased to be members upon their arrest, the court noted.
The court order said remaining active members of Aparna Ashram Society—Ashok Kumar, S.P. Verma, and Himanshu Sharma—made a joint statement on 14 May, 2025, expressing willingness to return the money lying in the frozen bank account to the plaintiff companies.
They proposed that if the plaintiffs agreed to forgo recovery of the Rs 21 crore already appropriated, the society would return the Rs 26 crore in the frozen account.
Mahinder Singh, the authorised signatory of the plaintiff companies, accepted this proposal through a statement recorded the same day. Based on these statements and the compromise reached between the parties, the court passed an award 12 July, 2025, directing the cancellation of the sale deed. The court directed the sub-registrar, Wazirabad, Gurugram, to make an endorsement on the original sale deed regarding its cancellation.
The court also directed the defendants to restore the frozen amount of Rs 26 crore to the plaintiff companies and declared all documents related to the sale deed null and void. The court fee was ordered to be refunded to the plaintiffs as provided under the Legal Services Authorities Act.
The warring trustees
The Aparna Ashram Society, registered in 1973-74 under the Societies Registration Act, originally had eight members in its general body and four in the governing council.
However, by the time this case reached court in 2025, the society’s governance structure had completely collapsed. The society’s president, Subhash Dutt, died on 31 January, 2025, months after the death of general body member S.K. Bali.
According to information gathered by ThePrint from revenue officials, after Dhirendra Brahmachari died in a plane crash on 9 June, 1994, two warring factions fought to take control of the Aparna Ashram, pursuing extensive litigation for more than two decades.
One faction was led by Laxman Chaudhary, who was appointed caretaker of the ashram. The other had another member, Murali Chaudhry, leading it, with K.S. Pathania, Subhash Dutt and Alok assisting him.
Who was Dhirendra Brahmachari
Born on 12 February, 1924, Dhirendra Brahmachari remains one of the most controversial spiritual figures in modern Indian history. Brahmachari’s political rise started in the late 1950s when he began teaching yoga to officials in Delhi. When Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966, Brahmachari’s influence reached extraordinary heights.
Despite holding no formal government position, Brahmachari acted as an intermediary for politicians, businessmen, and smugglers seeking high favours.
He was dubbed “India’s Rasputin” and “the Rasputin of Indira Gandhi” by opposition leaders who witnessed his sway over the Prime Minister.
Through his government connections, Brahmachari accumulated vast tracts of prime land across multiple locations, including Delhi, Gurugram, Jammu, Katra, and Mantalai.
With Indira Gandhi’s assassination on 31 October, 1984, Brahmachari’s influence began to fade. On 9 June, 1994, he died in a plane crash along with his pilot when their aircraft hit a pine tree while landing at the airstrip of his retreat in Mantalai in J&K’s Udhampur district.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)