AUSTRALIA
Times of India
MELBOURNE: Children as young as three were repeatedly molested at Australia’s oldest ashram by its Indian head and threatened with death if they complained, a public hearing into the sexual abuse case was informed today.
Late Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, head of Satyananda Yoga Ashram located on Mangrove Mountain in New South Wales, allegedly sexually abused the children during the 1970s and 1980s, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.
The commission inquiry into the ashram and its leader Saraswati heard that 11 children were abused while living at the ashram, Sydney Morning Herald reported today.
Though sexual activity was discouraged in the ashram, its founder Saraswati and his disciple Akhandananda molested teenaged girls, Counsel assisting the commission Peggy Dwyer said.
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