AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DECEMBER 03, 2014
A YOGA guru plotted to murder a child sex victim to prevent her giving evidence against him in a criminal trial over his abuse, a royal commission has heard.
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the abuse victim, who cannot be identified, said her parents had previously transferred legal guardianship of her to the Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.
The swami, who established the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain north of Sydney, was jailed for committing sexual offences against a child in 1989, although this conviction was later overturned on a legal technicality.
“Before the trial … a (man) called Vaj approached me and confessed to me that he had come close to murdering me on Akhandananda’s instruction,” the victim told the commission.
“He said he had been sent to Queensland to poison me so I wouldn’t be able to give evidence in the trial for child abuse … but that he’d had a change of heart.”
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