Kyle, USA - District Judge Charles Ramsay has ordered a Hays County religious leader accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls in the 1990s to remain in the country until a doctor working for the district attorney can make a recommendation on whether he is healthy enough to stand trial.
Prakashanand Saraswati, the 81-year-old international leader of the JKP-Barsana Dham sect of Hinduism, was arrested in April 2008 for allegedly touching the breasts of then-minors between 1993 and 1996. His trial was scheduled to start Nov. 1 this year but was pushed back when Prakashanand’s physicians said back surgery made it difficult for him to travel to Texas from India, where has spent much of his time since being barred from the 200-acre ashram he founded near Driftwood.
After Prakashanand recently showed up in Austin, however – about a month before his trial was to start – District Attorney Sherri Tibbe asked the court to confine the defendant to the United States. He was then ordered to submit to an examination by a doctor hired by the state to determine if he is well enough to be tried on 20 counts of indecency with a child, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
In a ruling last week, Ramsay ordered Prakashanand to be examined by Oct. 22 but declined to seize his passport pending results of the medical inquiry.
Tibbe has declined to comment. A spokesperson for Prakashanand told the Austin American-Statesman that the guru had a lower back operation in January and still is unable to sit for long periods. He was able to lie down for much of his recent 14-hour flight from India, Prabhakari Devi told the newspaper, but would be unable to sit in a courtroom for hours at a time during a lengthy trial.
In 1990, Prakashanand, called Shree Swamiji by his followers, established the Barsana Dham Center on FM 1826, a replica of an Indian holy district and the spiritual movement’s North American seat.
Following his arrest by U.S. marshals at a Washington airport nearly two and half years ago, Prakashanand was originally barred from leaving the country. But when infomercial magnate Peter Spiegal, a wealthy Saraswati adherent, put up a $10 million bond in security, Ramsay allowed Prakashanand to visit India for religious duties.
In June 2009, the Third Court of Criminal Appeals denied an appeal of Ramsay’s ruling keeping the guru from the Barsana Dham Center, saying the defendant had agreed to the terms when his passport was returned to him in May 2008.