Kuladri Das

Who makes the allegation, and on what basis. The claims come from Henry Doktorski, a former New Vrindaban resident who has written its history. On his book page he quotes letters from Jyotirdhama dasa, who describes himself as a participant in the plot. In January 2019 Jyotirdhama wrote: “By the time Sulochan was murdered, we all knew that Radhanath and Kuladri were involved in the planning.” He gave a fuller account on his own blog in 2019. The author’s book page also attributes a remark to Kuladri, without date or context: “We have to finish this thing. As long as that guy [Sulochan] is walking around, he’s a threat to Bhaktipada.” In a draft chapter the author cites Dennis Gorrick’s 1991 trial testimony. On that basis he writes that Gorrick paid Thomas Drescher $2,500 in May 1986 “because Kuladri told him that Bhaktipada had authorized that payment”. The Fourth Circuit’s opinion says only that Drescher received $2,500 “from the New Vrindaban community, authorized by Swami”. None of these accounts about Kuladri has been tested in court.

The participants’ accounts. Jyotirdhama dasa (Joseph Pollock Jr.), who ran the community’s telephone switchboard, wrote in 2019 that Kuladri called him to a meeting and told him: “It’s all set. Everything’s in place. The swamis are on board. Gaura is helping with surveillance. We just need your help with the telephones.” He also says that in February 1986 calls involving Kuladri, Gaura Shakti and the swamis Radhanath and Tapahpunja accounted for a noticeable rise in switchboard traffic. He also writes that “sometime soon after the murder” Kuladri came into the front office “encouraging me to ‘get rid of’ telephone call records from recent months; specifically the outbound call records recorded by the STS-16. I hid them in a crawl space above the PBX.” This is his own account; no record confirming it has been found. Janmastami dasa wrote in 2006 that Radhanath Swami had delivered his speech ordering the killing to “Tirtha, Tapah Punja Swami and Kuladri many times before”, and in a 2008 e-mail quoted in a 2011 compilation that Kuladri “was VERY, VERY frightened by the time it was coming to ‘reaction time’”. These are the participants’ own accounts and have not been tested in court.

Accounts that point the other way. Dennis Gorrick (Dharmatma dasa), testifying for the prosecution at Keith Ham’s 1991 trial (Day IV, 14 March 1991, transcript p. 833), said that after the murder Kuladri (Arthur Villa) “was quite disturbed” and “had mentioned how he was very disturbed and how it shouldn’t have been done like that. And that how Mr. Slavin, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Sheldon were pushing like crazy for this to happen, and how he had told them not to do it.” Gorrick said Kuladri had used their Krishna names. This is Gorrick’s sworn account of what Kuladri told him; the same draft chapter also quotes it, and says that a week after the murder Kuladri claimed Kirtanananda “knew nothing of the murder plot”.

His testimony. A 2011 compilation quoting the trial transcript gives this from Kuladri’s own testimony (Day III, 13 March 1991): “I know Tapahpunja, along with other swamis, were saying that the community had to do whatever is necessary to protect the Swami.” In 1993 the author of Killing for Krishna read the transcript of the 1991 federal trial of Keith Ham (Kirtanananda Swami) and quoted part of Kuladri’s testimony. That testimony concerned what Kirtanananda had told him in late 1986 about allegations of sexual conduct. Whether Kuladri testified under a grant of immunity has not been confirmed.