(02-06) 16:37 PST LANHAM, Md. (AP) --
Hare Krishna congregations named in a $400 million lawsuit alleging
sexual and emotional abuse of boarding school students plan to file for
bankruptcy, a spokesman for the Hindu sect said Wednesday.
Anuttama Dasa, a Maryland-based spokesman for the International Society
of Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, said the lawsuit would cost
congregations millions to fight and potentially bankrupt many even if they
won.
"We don't believe that innocent members and congregations should be
held accountable for the deviant behavior of individual acts committed 20
or 30 years ago," he said.
The group hopes to settle the lawsuit filed in a Texas state court by
former boarding school students. ISKCON plans to set up a fund to
compensate children who may have been victimized in Hare Krishna schools
during the 1970s and 1980s, Dasa said.
ISKCON formed a "Child Protection Office" in 1998 to investigate
allegations of abuse and some members have been removed from the Krishna
community as a result of the probes, Dasa said.
The Texas lawsuit alleges young children at Krishna schools in India
and the United States were terrorized by their instructors. There are 94
plaintiffs in the lawsuit, according to the office of Windle Turley, the
Dallas attorney who filed the lawsuit.
They allege that young girls were given as brides to older men who
donated to the religious community. Children also allegedly were deprived
of medical care, scrubbed with steel wool until their skin bled, and
prevented from leaving the schools.
Turley has said the abuse started in 1972 at ISKCON's first school in
Dallas, and continued in six other U.S. schools and two in India. He said
ISKCON knew that sex offenders were working in their schools.
Turley was not available for comment Wednesday and his legal assistant,
Michael Fitzgerald, said the firm wouldn't comment until it had more
information on the planned bankruptcy filings.
A devout branch of Hinduism, the Hare Krishna spiritual community grew
quickly in the United States during the 1960s.
The faith's spiritual leader believed children as young as 5 should be
sent to boarding schools so they can learn to be pure devotees.
Roughly a dozen schools operated in North America by the late 1970s,
but all have since closed. There are currently 75,000 Hare Krishnas in
North America.
About a dozen congregations will start filing for Chapter 11
reorganization next week in California, Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania
and Washington, said ISKCON attorney David Liberman.
On the Net:
Attorney Windle Turley: www.wturley.com
International Society of Krishna Consciousness: www.iskcon.com
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