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	Swami Lawyers Ask for Another Delay By Eric Dexheimer Austin American-Statesman February 25, 2010 http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/investigative/entries/2010/02/25/swami_lawyers_ask_for_another.html Attorneys for Prakashanand Saraswati, the Hindu leader who stands accused of groping two under-aged girls in the 1990s, have asked for another delay in the holy man’s trial in Hays County. If District Court Judge Charles Ramsay grants the request, the trial, now scheduled for early April, likely won’t be heard until the end of the summer — nearly two and a half years after Prakashanand was arrested. According to court documents filed last week, the founder and spiritual leader of Barsana Dham, the 200-acre ashram south of Austin, has been spending most of his time in India, where, the filings say, he underwent surgery on his lower back. A note from Dr. S.S. Kale of the All India Institute of Medical Science described the January operation as “serious” and said it took five hours to complete. Kale added that Prakashanand, also known to his followers as Shree Swamiji, should “avoid traveling and have complete rest for the next three to four months” and shouldn’t sit for more than a half-hour at a time. “The defendant is a very elderly individual,” the filing said. “Traveling from India to the United States takes approximately 18 hours” and thus “renders a trial in April 2010 a virtual impossibility.” Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe is opposed to the delay request, according to the court filings. Ramsay is scheduled to hear both sides make their arguments on March 3 in San Marcos. Prakashanand’s trial had been scheduled to begin April 5 — a date that had been reset from an earlier scheduled date of January 11. He was arrested by U.S. marshals in April 2008 as he stepped off an international flight in Washington, D.C.
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