Tamil Nadu Police gives clean report to Isha Foundation in missing volunteers case

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Police has given a clean chit to Isha Foundation, Coimbatore in a case related to six of its volunteers going missing, noting that five of them who had left the centre due to personal reasons have returned.

The police made the submission before a division bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan of the Madras High Court on a habeas corpus petition filed by C. Thirumalai of Kulasekarapatti in Tirunelveli district, stating his brother C. Ganesan had been missing since March this year.

The petitioner said that his brother was a volunteer at the yoga centre and on March 2, he received a phone call from the centre inquiring whether his brother had come home and realised that something had gone wrong.

After this, the yoga centre's administrator Dinesh lodged a complaint with the Alandurai police on March 5 and a missing person case was registered.

Since his brother could not be traced out even after the registration of the FIR, the petitioner moved the writ of habeas corpus.

Additional Public Prosecutor E. Raj Thilak on Thursday told the court that so far 36 persons, including some of the employees and volunteers in Isha Yoga Centre, had been questioned, but the police required some more time to file a status report in the case.

He said that five more volunteers were found to be missing at that time but most of them had returned to the centre and were found to have gone away due to personal reasons.

"Even in the present habeas corpus petition, the volunteer concerned has no other family member but the petitioner who is his brother. If some time is given, we will expedite the steps to trace him out and file a status report," the APP told the court.

The court, after taking note of the APP’s statements, directed the High Court registry to list the case under the caption ‘For Dismissal’ on June 7. The court also took note of the fact that the counsel for the petitioner was also not present.