Osho flat in murky waters
Pune Mirror | Sep 3, 2014, 02.30 AM IST
By: Kaumudi Gurjar
Cash-strapped commune was planning to sell late sanyasin’s apartment in KP, meant to be used as a library as per his will.
Osho may have thought of money as a distraction against happiness, but the message clearly hasn’t trickled down to the Osho International Foundation (OIF), whose bank accounts in Switzerland were frozen by a Swiss court in June for misappropriation of funds.
An apartment owned by a late Osho sanyasin, meant to be used as a library as per his will, was instead in the process of being sold off and the proceeds handed over to OIF, when the property agreement landed in the hands of sanyasins associated with the Friends of Osho group.
The deal received a major setback after one of the group, whose legal opinion was sought, realised that the apartment, put up for Rs 32,50,000, could not be sold to a third party. Shockingly, the agreement has no mention of Manju Agrawal, daughter of Swami Govindanand, who owned the flat before his death.
The library was initiated by Swami Govindanand as the Osho Swageet library at Flat #8, building B-14 in Meeranagar, Koregaon Park, to carry forward Osho’s work. Swami Govindanand passed away on December 3, 2003. In his will, he bequeathed his property and one fixed deposit in Cosmos Bank, to Osho Swageet under the guidance of seven trustees, namely, Manju Agrawal, Jagdish Vasani, Jagdish Gupta, Sanjay Bagmar, Swami Anand Prem, Swami Prem Chaitanya and Radheshyam Saraswati.
Swami Anadi alias Kishor Raval, who realised that the property could not be sold to a third party, said, “We recently found out that Swami Dhaynesh (Dhanesh Joshi) of OIF called all the trustees of Osho Swageet Library and asked them to sell the property. The sale agreement had been drafted and they asked the trustees to sell the property to ‘any third party’ and give them the proceeds earned through the sale.”
Having been exposed, it appears that the trustees and OIF are now ready to scrap the deal. Sanjay Bagmar, one of the trustees, told Mirror, “We have scrapped the deal, the property will be handed over to OIF as was Swami Govindanand’s wish. OIF had asked six executors to sell the property to a third party and hand over the proceeds.”
He added, “We do not know why they were not ready to accept the property as it is. We consulted legal advisors who told us the property cannot be sold to a third party, so we have scrapped the deal.”
When asked why the sanyasin’s last wishes were not respected, he said, “Swami Govind had a collection of books and audio cassettes to be used for the library, but there are no takers for cassettes these days, and with the commune located nearby, no one really wants to read books.”
Vistar Michael English alias Duriya Electricwala who is currently living at the flat on rent and hoping to buy it, said, “I know nothing about this. We have been paying rent for the last five months and now suddenly have been asked to vacate the flat immediately. We made a full payment for purchasing the flat and now we will lose Rs 10,000 paid for the demand draft.”
Swami Dhyanesh alias Dhanesh Joshi who was dealing with the trustees and the occupants of the flat chose not to respond to the emails sent by Mirror.
Swami Govindanand’s daughter, Manju, told Mirror, “My father collected books and audio tapes of Osho Rajaneesh and his entire flat was filled with them. He was so passionate about his work that he wanted his property to be used as a library even after his death. If OIF is unable to respect his last wish, they should return the property to his wife and children.”
http://www.punemirror.in/pune/civic/Osho-flat-in-murky-waters/articleshow/41544222.cms