Panaji: Panaji police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against founder of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and founder of Osho Ludhiana Meditation Society for insulting the religious faith of Catholic community.
The founders of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Osho Ludhiana Meditation Society are the organisers of the proposed event ‘Tales of Kamasutra and Christmas Celebration’, which has led to a strong public backlash in the state.
Police said a complaint was lodged by Cyril A Fernandes, president of the Catholic Association of Goa. Referring to the complaint, the police said that the accused persons, with their common intention, organised an event, scheduled to be held from December 25, to December 28.
The event has been intentionally titled as ‘Tales of Kamasutra and Christmas Celebration’ thereby insulting the religious faith of the Catholic community by circulating the sacrilegious observance with explicit sexual content, said police. Police sub-inspector Manjunath Naik is investigating the case.
Police had directed the organisers not to proceed with the programme.
However, sources claimed that bookings were being accepted on Sunday via online and offline channels, prompting the police to issue a formal directive on Monday warning the organisers to halt all public bookings.
“The organisers have been told to immediately stop all promotional activity, cancel existing bookings and refund the money to the customers,” a police official said.
It may be noted that multiple organisations had filed complaints against the controversial event. The programme was advertised as a meditation-based gathering themed on Kamasutra. The promotional material had provoked outrage among NGOs and citizens.
Several groups had alleged that the event encouraged sexual activities and commercial sexual exploitation under the guise of spirituality, damaging Goa’s family-friendly and religious image during Christmas.
