By Rebecca Taylor
CBS 42
October 2, 2008
http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=98b8faf8-46c8-4eb3-b216-5ff2e1faedd5
A local Hindu leader has undergone a lie-detector in hopes of getting back on temple grounds. Prakashanand Saraswati is the founder of the Barsana Dham Temple in northern Hays County.
It is the temple Saraswati built -- the temple where he worked and lived. It's also where he's accused of inappropriately touching two young girls. That's why authorities don't want him back here. But he -- and his many followers -- are fighting to change that.
Free on $10 million bond, Prakashanand Saraswati -- known to his followers as Swami Ji isn't free to come to the holy temple he helped build.
Jaresha Auxier supports Saraswati and says, “We do miss him being able to come here. He's allowed to go to any temple in the entire world except for the one that he built here so that's hard sometimes.”
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| Prakashanand Saraswati at an August court appearance. |
Those are judge's orders, a condition of his release pending trial on charges he fondled two young girls at the temple more than a decade ago. But could this ... Change that? A lie-detector test his attorney's claim in court paperwork proves, he didn't do it. The names of 57 followers who live on Barsana Dham's grounds, petitioning for his return.
“I've lived here at Barsana Dahm 12 years and i absolutely know without a doubt that he's innocent,” says Jaresha Auxier who lived at the temple beginning in 1996 -- when some of the crimes allegedly occurred.
The Hays County District Attorney today declined to comment on the case -- or the lie detector test -- a test, which is not admissible in Texas criminal courts. A test, which was administered -- not by the cops -- but by a private firm.
While Saraswati is prohibited from teaching on these grounds, he is still teaching. Jaresha told us he gives spiritual teachings -- attended by about 40 people -- at a nearby private home -- but no children are allowed.
Email: retaylor@keyetv.com
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