78 thoughts on “Visiting guru held on sex charges”

1. 85 year old man having sex for 1 hour? Not to make light of the situation as alleged, but ….Damn!

2. Reminds me of Panday and the 15 yr old girl…..

3. this is rubbish..its all framed

4. I will wait to hear more facts, but my first reaction is the same as Rick’s…. something is fishy about the story.

5. This is sad that people are looking at the bastard’s age as a factor. This is a young woman who was obviously taken advantage of becuase she believed in her faith. Please allow her and her family to show the world that deception and manipulation is everywhere and respect her for speaking up. I wonder how many victims existed before her and what could have happened had she not speak up. The courage it must have taken…think of your sisters, mothers and daughter before jumping the gun.

6. I tend to agree. It must have take great courage to come forward. Apparently it not just catholic priest, but also bad pundits who are using the trust place in them for their own gain. Not to take away anything from the good religious leaders, but it about time someone stand up to them. “Evil can only triumph when good people standby and do nothing

7. Accused swami made to surrender passport
   CLUTCHING a cane, an 85-year-old swami dressed in a saffron coloured kurta hobbled up the staircase of the prisoners’ dock in San Fernando Magistrates’ Court yesterday, to answer two counts of sexually assaulting a 22-year-old Guyanese woman…

   Lawyer slams ‘mischief’
   Elderly swami charged with rape
   A Hindu holy-man too feeble to walk without help was carried into court yesterday, charged with two sex crimes-which his defenders said he had neither the time nor the energy to commit.

8. What a travesty, T&T is going down a very slippery road. First we have a man of God saying the PM is foolish, it’s a good thing he did not let that woman put her hands on him otherwise God knows what he would have been arrested for. Now the swami arrested, hope they are protected against pray when the table turns. This is like bible times when Jesus was led to calvery and ultimately his death, people mocked and stoned him, but look at the end result. They are now attacking every foreigner that comes to the country to provide some good. I am not condoning rape/crime but what can an 85 year old, jet lag man do to a 22 year old. There is something very foul smelling with this story and hope T&T is not left with the stick. If this is the 20/20 vision no one will enter T&T in years to come. What is the world thinking? God help us all.

9. I don’t know, I really do not know. 85 years old and engaged in a sexual encounter lasting for one hour. They should be studying this guy to see what he eats.

   Seriously there is no evidence in that article that constitutes rape. There has to be a carnal connexion obtained through force, fear or fraud against the will of the victim. There is nothing in the article that points definitively to either of these agencies. Maybe we need to get more details before jumping the gun.

10. Swami rape charge big news in India
    Trinidad and Tobago made the headlines in India yesterday, after newspapers and news websites there carried news of the arrest of famous Hindu Swami Ram Tripathi’s here on charges of sexual assault.

11. The man in question is a very learned man who has been preaching the massess for last six decades. Among his many followers worldwide are womens of all ages and so far no such incidents of saxual harrasments have been ever reported. I can’t believe that an 85 yrs old person who has devoted his life towards bringing the spritual upliftment of people can suddenly turn into a sex maniac to perform the sexual act for one hour. How many of the 85 years old can do the same. It is redicules. pls leave the man alone. He will come out of this crisis stonger than ever.

12. there is a conspiracy behind this entire episode..a lobby is working in trninidad and tobago which doesnt want that these hindu gurus should come and preach and propogate the religion..u have to look atleast His health and age..i have seen His photographs aired on television where he is being escorted and supported by two cops to get inside the police station..hw could you even expect such a Figure to engage in such ridiculous act..the accusation is a SHAM!

13. This guru has history of doing this other places. He had couple of rape charges in India. The case is still going on.

14. Was there not a Trinidadian man of about the same age convicted within the last two years of having an incestuous relationship with his grand-daughter? I think he was 81 or something. If a drug like rohipnol was used on this your woman, he would have no resistance, nothing will stop or interrupt him. One thing people need to understand, few women say they were raped who were not. And a note to women, any religious person, asking you to take off all your clothes, or any part thereof’ should be a signal to run like hell. This incident may give a new definition of “laying on of hands”. Of course senior men in any religion are powerful beings, who can prey on the vulnerability of women who are trained to seek a leader outside of themselves.
    Finally, if a woman claims to have been raped, the police are duty bound to follow up on it. The fact that they are both Indians from different foreign places should prevent people from beliving from the get go that it is Trini bias against people from India. To much of that nonsense gets mouthed too often.

15. This Man is a great Saint and He will definitely get out of this SCAM and emerge stronger than before.

16. This Swami Ram Tripathi kmown as Sri Kripalu ji Maharaj always surrounded by young girls of 18yrs to 25yrs in his rest room all the times and all the old devotees (Unmarried Ladies) in their 35 to 70yrs are His priests to convey His message to the society. He always say that He is Radha (a lady) & all followers are Krishna’s. Having plenty of Buildings in India & Abroad in the names of trusts owned by His Four Daughters. His wife is also alive & lives in a small town of Mangarh in India.

    What is the reality only God knows or the person who face Him face to face as disclosed by this Gyana 22yrs lady.

17. This man is an old 85 year old man and this lady is 22 years old young strong lady. How strange that such an old man can control such a young woman? This is all a political scam to make sure that Hindus don’t preach in trinidad. what nonsense! why didn’t she scream or leave the room before taking off her clothes? it doesn’t make sense? many witnesses were there that say that she was never alone with him. where is her proof? its a scam!

18. The minds of the people are so disgusting! WE should be blessed to have a ‘Great Saint’ in this era. He came to the world to uplift the fallen souls but we are defaming Him. SHAME ON US!! God will never forgive us for this. We will definitely be punished for this ungrateful deed. The media is portraying information falsely. They themselves are not sure about his case. There are three articles about ‘Maharaj Ji’ that portray three different dates of when He was arrested. One of Friday, the other on Saturday and another on Sunday. This does not make any sense. They are not sure about the case and yet they are writing articles as if they control the case and the outcome! It is a conspiracy!!

19. people in trinidad believe in obea hence the reason for all these corruption in the government and murders, before trinidad was a paradise island. Go back to your various churches and began some honoust praying. That goes to the ministers and all those in big post with empty head. To the Guayaness woman what are you doing in trinidad looking for comfort. go back to your land and deal with the bucks.You people believe in too much wich craft, obea, sear man etc. you should look for God and you will find him .

20. In 1962, at Independence, we pledged religious tolerance. How many Guri Jis, “Saints” and Swami’s have had any interaction with the police in all that time? My recolection is none, up to this point. Meanwhile priests have been involved with the law for illicit sexual relations with children and women. The latest case of a preacher/swindler who took people’s money and claimed to be a billioniare was about a year ago. Pundits have been involved with drug dealing- at least a daughter was, and a preacher’s daughter was involved in dirty dancing at a club. Was all of this due to anti-religious sentiment. Benny Hinn came and cast out devils, and on the eve of another televangelist’s coming, a money racket was exposed in the US, causing hm to stay home. Since we are a rich small nation, there seeems to be the nned to pray us out of our wealth. Nobody is goin to Darfur or Somalia, or Guyana to pray. Makes you wonder.

    The foregoing proves, to me, that we have in fact created a society of religious tolerance. Since the murti was created in Central- boasting of the “largest outside of India” it has been visited by many Swami’s. (The tradition of calling them saints is recent, and I don’t accept that; being Christian, I wait for a proof of a miracle done by them.) Was any of them arrested, hindered by Customs or Immigration, subject to unreasonable search of person or baggage? or made to feel unwelcome in any way? Not that I heard of. Now that a specific charge has beed raised against this specific Guru, the usual predictable accusations are raised.
    That same charge was successfully prosecuted in New York against another Hindu pundit. It may be useful for someone with the time to research that charge and see what the methodology was.In the deep corner of my mind, I think the pundit was from Trinidad or Guyana, and there was taking off of clothes involved. He was supposedly annointing her. People who ask others to touch or kiss their feet in a sign of obeisance and humility, are in a prime position to exploit gullible devotees. I do not think Catholic priests recently ordained, should prostrate themselves before the Pope either, but I am not Catholic, nor a priest.

    If that Swami-Guru-saint had any kind of sex with the young woman, a case of coercion can be made because he was in a position of authority over, like a teacher with a student.

21. IT IS VERY HARD FOR ME TO BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN SWAMI AND THAT GUYANESE GIRL.THAT MAN IS TOO OLD TO PERFORM THAT NONSENSE TO HER.THAT IS A VERY BAD REPUTATION SHE IS LEAVING FOR GUYANESE WHO ARE LIVING THERE AND ALSO MAKING A LIVING TO SURVIVE.FIRST OF ALL WHY SO LATE AT NIGHT TO VISIT ANYONE FOR A SPIRITUAL HELP.SHE HAD SLEPT WITH SOMEONE AND DECIDED TO PLAY BAD OR EITHER SHE SMOKE POT.ACCORDING TO THE NEWS WHEN SHE WENT IN THE ROOM SHE SAW SWAMI NAKED AND SHE SUPPOSED TO SCREAMED,SHOUT AND RUSH OUT THE ROOM FOR HELP.SWAMI CANNOT RUN HE IS VERY OLD AND FEEBLE BECAUSE I SAW HIS PICTURE.IF IT IS FALSE THAT GIRL SHOULD BE PUT AWAY BEFORE SHE PUT MORE PEOPLE IN TROUBLE AND ALSO MAKE A STINK ON THEIR CHARACTER.FIRST OF ALL T&T GOVERNMENT SHOULD CHECK ON HER BACKGROUND AND BAND HER FROM ENTERING T&T AGAIN.I AM A GUYANESE WHO MIGRATE FROM GUYANA 32YRS AGO AND MARRY TO A TRINIDADIAN AND ALSO MIGRATE TO CANADA 20YRS AGO.PLEASE JUDGE WHO EVER YOU ARE IF SHE CONVICTED OF FELONY GIVE HER A STIFF PENALTY AND OTHERS WILL KNOW NOT TO PUT ANY BAD SAYING ON ANYONE OR MAKE A BIG MISTAKE LIKE THAT.IF BY CHANCE SWAMI DID IT SHE SHOULD BE JAIL FOR HIS REST OF HIS LIFE AND STOP PRAYING AND GIVING LECTURE TO ANYONE OBOUT HIS GOD.

22. Thinking about Guru, this woman went to tease the guru and lure him into sex by correcting her of his respect, she decided to accused him. The law should check her whereabout and habits, i am pretty sure she was under the influence of drug, had sex with some other person and thus blame it on the guru. Why a Guayaness and not a Trini. because trini hindus know their place when it comes to their society with great respect.

23. It is astonishing that when a woman makes a charge of sexual assualt against a man, how often the women are the most condemnatory of her. Sattie From Guyana now in Canada falls into this category. If a woman was sexually assualted, her character has nothing to do with it.
    A prostitute can be sexually assualted, and her being a prostitute has nothing to do with it.

    Caribbean and Guyanese women who condemn women who say they are taken advantage of,sexually, are in the same category as those men who thought that Julia Cummings was “getting a few cuffs” in the maxi-taxi five years ago, when in fact her throat was being slashed.They did not rush to her aid. They thought she probably deserved a few cuffs. Her head was almost severed from her body.

    We are other women’s worst enemies. Perhaps this is part of CAribbean slave and indenture culture.
    “She look for that” is also a popular phrase used by women to condemn their fellow women. “Investigate she” says Sattie from Guyana, now in Canada. Would she say this to a court in Canada? In fact in The USA and possibly in Canada too, the woman’s background has nothing to do with it. When a hotel hostess said that Kobe Bryant had raped her, a rape kit check was done. Fluid collected from her body had Bryant’s DNA in it. Same is true of Lewinski’s notorious blue dress- years later, the DNA eveidence was in the stains on her dress.

    So, was a rape kit evidence collected? You mean to say we still don’t have that capability? Then it becomes a game of his word versus hers. If he is constantly surrounded by young maidens, as one writer said, why was he alone with this one? Why was he naked?(OK,OK I know the Mahatma frequently walked around in a capra alone, but nobody ever accused him of improper behaviour, except the British. They were biased anyway.)

    Anyone could choose to walk with a cane and pretend to be feeble if it suits their convenence. I once saw a man use a wheel chair to skip the long line at Heathrow Airport, waiting to baord the plane. At the ticket gate, he got out of the chair and walked into the plane. It was a ruse. Everyone laughed at his cleverness. This was before 9-11. Today he would be arrested for fraud. If wheel-chair bound peple can be sexually active,and paraplegics can, certainly an aged guru can be sexually active. After all are they not the healthiest people? They do not eat dead animals.

    It may be too late to collect a rape kit evidence package, but there seems more to this than the hysterical accusations of a devotee. Intense questioning may be hindered by language barriers, but this matter must be persued. Is it possible to get an unbiased translator who could help in interviewing this “holy” man?

    White clerical gowns, saffron robes, crimson and purple robes, long beard, cane these are part of the actor’s kit for characters who wish to set themselves off from the rest of society, but the robes, and kit, are not sacrosanct. An impeccable life is above reproach. Is his life impeccable? Some writers have said otherwise.

24. One man’s saint is another’s demon. Didn’t St. Francis murder hundreds in Goa to convert?

    The donkeys referring to this man as a Saint need to take their blinders off. Not that I believe he is guilty but people should not place such blind faith in other people.

    Not one of the writers in this forum here, I am sure, has all the facts, yet they are defending this man and condemning the woman. Why is it so hard to believe that a man in his 80’s is capable of intercourse? That goes to show the level of ignorance among some of these writers. Also, as Linda rightly pointed out, IF he drugged the woman then anything else after that could be possible.

    The fact that the woman is from Guyana has nothing to do with the level of seriousness of the accusation as some seem to think.
    Some of the comments here are a reflection of the level of ignorance in Trinidad. The same way people blindly believe what they want, is the same way they choose their governments and the same way they show their prejudice towards a person because they are Guyanese is the same way they show their prejudice towards one another because of religion, race or political affiliation.

25. Linda Edwards, get your facts straight. This is the Swami’s second visit out of India. His last visit was in 2005. He was never at the Heathrow Airport in 2001. So before you start writing, think about what you are saying!!

    Maharaj Ji KI Jai!!

26. I’m sorry Riaz but just because someone follows a certain guru or faith doesn’t mean that they are followers of blind faith. People aren’t as stupid as you are making them out to be. I’m sure that is someone is following a faith or a guru, they would have thought through it first. People aren’t uneducated you know.

    Next, i don’t think you should condemn this saint because you also don’t have all the facts. So why don’t all you people hold your horses and stop misinterpreting facts and just wait it out. What you see may not be what is really there.

    Everyone just goes around saying, oh poor woman. But let me get this across to all of you, just because one is a woman does not mean that she is weak. And as for the part about being drugged, the woman did not mention anything of that sort in her statement. So that can be ruled out all together.

    So why don’t all you people just hold your comments which, by the way, are being made on baseless allegations, until the entire case is settled. Why are you so anxious to comment on it?

    I am firm on my stand that this man is a saint and that he is innocent because i have done my research on him. Any person with such in-depth knowledge of the scriptures, and not only the hindu ones, can be nothing less than a saint. When jesus was alive, people were bent on torturing and crucifying him and they eventually did. But now, people worship him. This is a well known fact. So don’t make the same mistake here. Why burden yourself with such a grave sin? Don’t you commit enough sins already?

27. It’s really sad to see a “Woman” (that’s right a woman, not a Guyanese woman, just a Woman) who decides to come forward with an issue like this is persecuted. Would it be even less important if this happened to a woman in the jungles of Africa? Would it have been more convincing if there person was not Guyanese (not sure why race/country of origin would be an issue). That is why (I could be wrong) but about 90% of rape goes unreported.

    It’s narrow minded of people to just find ways to redirect attention to the victim. Who are we to judge what happened in that room. I bet for those people who are screaming “drugs” and “fraud” will be singing a different tune if it was their daughter, sister, or niece making the claims. I think she is brave to come forward knowing fully well people will be judging her.

    The other main arguments: he is 86 years old and can’t get “it” up is unbelievable. Were any of you in his bedroom lately to know what he is capable of? Because a person is old does not make him impotent. Hugh Hefner is 81 and he’s still going strong.

    Not because he is a religious leader makes him above the law or above basic human morals. Not because a person is a Swami they should automatically get the benefit of the doubt. Do let that cloud your judgments. He may be doing good things for kids around the world but could he be doing this because that keeps him close to young girls? For example, a child abuser will find a job as a teacher or a coach to be close to what they want. Is this the case? We cannot tell because none of us know him or the situation. Do NOT blindly follow anyone; you can end up in a Jim Jones situation. You have the ability to think for yourself, use you judgment.

    I am not saying he is guilty. What I am don’t make judgments because we do not have all the facts. Hopefully the Justice System will do their job and make things right.

28. Sometimes when a reader makes a nonsensical comment on something I wrote, I go over and carefully re-read what I wrote and wonder how could the responder get from where I was to where his comemnt is. If my name evokes apoplectic responses in readers, I regret the apoplexy, not the writing.
    That being said, I invite Madhav to re-read my pieces(3) and then see if his response makes sense to him. If it does, I am definitely missing something.

    I do not keep track of gurus or swami-saints coming to TnT. All kinds of people come to see us. I was only asking, of all who have come, which one could say they were given a hard time by police or customs and immigration? We are tolerant of visitors who wear religious clothing. Thus his arrest has nothing to do with religious persecution.

    The point about Heathrow is called an analogy. It is a statement made to compare one thing to another trough an anecdote. In this case the wheelchaired person, who used it as a ruse(trick) to get to the front of the line, is being compared to an elderly man who may walk with a cane to give a false sense of feebleness. I said MAY, OK.
    So, which facts MAdhav, did I not get right? I have no facts whatever. I am only saying that this situation needs to be looked into, and an unbiased translator, not dazzled by the light of his holiness nd white beard, be obtained to get his story straight.

    In the absence of physical evidence that could have been collected in a rape kit, it may be his word against hers. And the other commentator who said she was not drugged also seems to have missed something. The woman saidsomething was sprayed in the room and after that she seemed to have lost consciousness. If I was an investigator I would check on drugs that can be inhaled into unconsciousness, in spray form. It couldstill be in her blood.

    Both these rssponders seem to have been instructed by someone, are they the frontline of his guruness’ defense team?

    Here ends the lesson for MAdhav. Please do not bre upset at my explaining in detail. I wanted to be sure you followed what I had said.

29. I somehow knew that someone would bring up the point about not being drugged. She claimed that he sprayed a liquid on her AND himself. Also in no part of her statement did she mention losing consciousness. I read through the article thoroughly before posting my comments Linda. Also, another point to be noted here is that she gave a description of what happened after the liquid was sprayed, which, she would not have been able to do had she been drugged as she would be unconscious. If she now claims that she was unconscious then i just have to ask, why is she changing her story? Linda, maybe you should read the article carefully before posting any comments because it seems to me that my comments actually make more sense than yours.

    I’m sure that if you read the papers today, you would’ve found out that the “victim” is holding public meetings on what had supposedly happened to her. I’m sorry but i didn’t know that people deal with trauma by blowing it up. I know you people will now defend her by saying that she’s brave and all that bullshit but her acts, to me, seem like a cry for attention. Is someone was really traumatized they would try to get over their trauma in practical ways with proper help, not by going around saying” oh, Look at me! I am the rape victim that the papers have been talking about!” I personally think that that is pathetic.

    By the way, i am not the jagadguru’s frontline defence team or anything of that sort. Just because my comment is written in a way that doesn’t appeal to you does not make it wrong. I could easily say that because of the way your comments are written, you may be the “victim’s” frontline defence team but i’m not going declare something like that about you because i know that different people have different styles of writing. I’m not trying to offend anyone here, i’m just putting down my thoughts so, don’t be offended.

30. Which article to read? I read every one in the three papers. Who is to say how one deals with trauma? Only the traumatized know. Some people go into seclusion, as one of my sisters did two years ago when we lost two brothers and her daughter within 17 days(not as a result of road accidents or violence).

    I wrote about is, and sought deeper meaning in their short lives. Some people will scream at God, why us? Why not take the vagrant on the street that no one wants?

    Different reactions.

    Rape was/is a dirty secret powerful people used to keep to themselves- the slavemaster, the plantation owner, the boss-businessman, the holy man- they all used the power of their position against the powerless. In the last twenty years, the powerless in the west- women rape victims have been given a media voice- it is her choice to take it or not.

    You who do not wish to be judged by your stance for the guru-swami-saint, must not judge her.

    Speaking out about one’s degradation, is a rare act of courage. Maybe some of those cult followers- the young women who troop to him, will also find courage, if they were abused, to speak out.
    In the case of the Roman Catholic Church of the USA, it took more than twenty years before abused boys were willing to come forth.Some will go with their secret, the secret of the powerful, to their graves. In the case of the indigenous people of Canada versus the Anglican Church for the abuse suffered in boarding schools, it took more than seventy years for them to come forward. In the case of the Aborginal Australians, it took more than a hundred years for the media to pick up their case, in the case of the Chagos Islanders it took more than seventy years of continuous protest before the British court ruled two weeks ago that they had the right to return to their hmelands, from which they were unceremoniously removed to make way for an American Base. They were dumped, peniless on another island.

    Injustice, clouded by the powerful versus the poor, required/requires a different approach. All of these were not cases of rape, but many of them resulted in rape, or used rape as a weapon of power. What greater power does a man have than a pretty woman whmpering at his feet? It was what annoyed so many people in the recent Akon affair at the notorious night club.

    I want to reiterate that if a woman says she was raped, she most probably was. If she is willing to speak publicly about it, she is helping both herself and others deal with it. She has become a voice for the voiceless. Rape Is The Most Powerful Weapon A Man, Any Man Has In His Armoury Of Physical, Mental, spiritual and Emotional Domination.

    The tone of How Dare She Accuse THIS MAN should be deleted from our minds.

    If Sally Hemmings had accused Thomas Jefferson, the plantation owner who crafted the Declaration of Independence and became the second US President, of rape, people would have laughed. She was his slave.
    He denied that her children were his, and kept them as slaves. Now DNA tests have proved that her descendents and his are related.

    I give these examples to broaden the debate and perspectives on this issue.

    If this young woman became pregnant as a result of that encounter, witrh the guru-swami-saint or any other, we could prove once and for all, that a specific person did it.

    Subconsciously, I am beginning to fear for her life. I put this out because when something like that occurs in my mind, it is because it already is in others’ minds.

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