Senior advocate held in fraudulent sale of Indira Gandhi’s yoga guru Dhirendra Brahmachari’s ashram

GURUGRAM: In a breakthrough in the alleged Rs 55 crore land fraud case concerning Aparna Ashram, Gurugram Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested senior advocate Ramanand Yadav for his alleged involvement in the scam of cheating in getting the prime land of the ashram in Silokhera village transferred.

The property in dispute was originally owned by Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, who was a prominent Yoga guru and also the yoga mentor of the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The ashram was set up for yoga training and research. The yoga guru ran ashrams in Bhondsi (Gurugram), Jammu and Katra in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. He also authored several books on yoga. He wielded considerable political influence during 1975-77 when Gandhi declared a state of emergency and suspended civil liberties. His yoga show on Doordarshan gained popularity in the late 1970s.

During the 1980s, Brahmachari built Aparna Ashram Society in Gurugram near Silokera village. The air conditioned ashram included an airstrip, hangar and a TV studio. The 1980s teleserials India Quiz and Hum Log were shot here.

After Brahmachari’s death, his relatives and a tenant engaged in a legal battle over the ownership of the property. He was also the owner of Vishwayatan Yogashram in the centre of Delhi, which is now known as the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga.

Several criminal cases were filed against him, and many dragged on till his death. Dhirendra Brahmachari died in a plane crash, along with his pilot, when they hit a pine tree in June 1994, while landing at the airstrip of his religious retreat and yoga school in Mantalai, a village in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the police, Ramanand Yadav’s arrest comes after an FIR was registered at Sector 40 Police Station on the complaint of Lokan Chaudhary, who has been appointed as caretaker of the ashram by the court. The FIR states that on December 24, 2020, a sale deed for the ashram land was signed and registered at the Wazirabad Sub-Registrar’s office in contravention of an earlier revocation of manual registration permission by then Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri. The registration was allegedly stamped through with fake documents and false assertions by KS Pathania and his associates.

As per the FIR, a sham management committee was formed to pretend to own the ashram, and the deal purported to have a payment of Rs 55 crore through 29 cheques. Yet, no monetary transaction was made. The scammer status of the registration was brought into question after the Punjab and Haryana High Court declined relief to the accused parties based on concealment of material facts.

The swindle widened further as the beneficiary firms, Redox Tradex Pvt Ltd among them, approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with a plea for insolvency, stating debts of over Rs 91 crore, which is thought to be an effort to protect the land obtained illegally from legal scrutiny.

Ramanand Yadav has been charged with helping the illicit transaction to take place and allegedly receiving more than Rs 5.5 crore as his so-called lawful fees. His bail applications were turned down by the District Court as well as the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He has been remanded to judicial custody.

On February 21, 2024, a cancellation deed revoking the sale was registered by caretaker Lokan Chaudhary. The FIR has raised serious charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery, and presenting false evidence, besides provisions of the Registration Act and Prevention of Corruption Act. The case has been sent to the police after a thorough probe by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Civil), Badshahpur.