Granada guru charged with abusing Hindu followers

The leader of a Hindu sect in Granada has been accused of submitting his followers to "abusive and coercive" practices for his own personal, financial and sexual gain. Antonio Javier R. P., the 51-year-old guru of the Vaidika Partisana Sangha community in Armilla, was last Thursday charged by the Granada public prosecutor with illicit association and crimes against moral integrity in relation to at least 22 of his former disciples.

The charges are the result of an investigation that began in June after former followers and their relatives got in contact with the Granada ombudsman. According to the prosecutor, the guru lured people, often made vulnerable by family, work or psychological problems, into the group with yoga and massage classes, before using "coercive persuasion techniques" to alter their personalities. Most later needed psychological treatment. He also managed "to have sexual access" to many sect members.

"He destroyed my life," said one of the group's first members, who entered aged 20 and left eight years later in 1988 without family, work, friends or money. "He kidnaps volunteers and his manipulation is so great that it is practically impossible to penetrate the conscience of a person who is inside."