Lokanath Swami

The GBC said in 2022 that he had apologised to the girl and her family. In 2011, asking the GBC to release him from a self-imposed moratorium on initiating, he said the final edited apology letter made his acts look “more serious than they were” (panel report). The letters drafted for his disciples under the 2012 resolution have him say that during his 1990 US tour “I committed a serious indiscretion. I deeply regret this incident.”

In its section on secular law, without any recorded disagreement among its members, the 2022 panel report states: “Under New Jersey law at the time, one or more of Lokanath Swami’s acts would constitute sexual assault because they involved touching [the girl’s] genital area, inner thigh, or groin; were done intentionally; and were for the purpose of sexual gratification.” It also says that “it does appear that the incidents in question should have been reported to local law enforcement and/or other governmental authorities”. These are the opinions of the GBC’s own panel, not findings of a court; no criminal charge has been reported.

There was no Child Protection Office decision in this case: it was handled throughout by the GBC, its committees and its panel. According to the panel report, when the CPO was set up in 1998 its first director was told by a member of the 1993 committee that the case had already been dealt with, and he agreed not to reopen it. In 2022 the GBC also passed a resolution (201.02) so that future abuse allegations go directly to the CPO and other ISKCON offices rather than to the GBC.

The allegation was in the press by November 1998: a Deccan Herald (UNI) report quoted the critic Vineet Narain citing “the recent rejection of Guru Loknath Swami by his former disciples on learning that he had molested a teenaged girl in the US”. In 2011 Tamohara das, a former director of the Child Protection Office, wrote to a GBC committee that the official account “underplays and minimizes” the incidents, and that Lokanath’s own 2010 letter “gives a more true account” (note reproduced by lokanath.net). In the rough minutes of the October 2011 GBC meeting, a speaker recorded as “Jps” (read by the site as Jayapataka Swami, an inference from the initials) gave his “humble opinion that we should let him resume his preaching” (Panel Report Appendix G).

ISKCON has not published the 2012 and 2017 GBC texts, the North American statements of 2017, 2021 and 2022, or the European resolutions. The copies cited here are those reproduced by lokanath.net, an anonymous website campaigning for his removal. ISKCON News reported in August 2022 that the North America Council had “recently” restricted him, and the 2022 GBC decision refers to the North American restriction.

Defamation suits against two campaigners (Delhi High Court, 2023–). In 2023 Lokanath Swami, acting through the holder of his power of attorney, sued Saraswati (Sara) Richardson Jones and a second campaigner, who had been asking the GBC to remove him from leadership, together with the operators of the platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are named in the order), in the Delhi High Court (CS(OS) 179/2023). The suit concerned their social-media posts about him. He asked the court to order the posts taken down and an “unconditional apology”, and claimed ₹2.25 crore (22.5 million rupees) in damages. His counsel told the court that he “has never been charged with any crime in India, or in any other country”. On 15 March 2023, after hearing counsel for both sides, the court granted an ad-interim injunction: the two campaigners were to delete the posts within 24 hours, failing which the platforms were to take them down, and they were “restrained from making any comments/imputations against the plaintiff herein in the future, using any medium or platform”. The campaigners appealed, then withdrew the appeal on 17 April 2023 with liberty to ask the single judge for an earlier hearing. On 5 April 2024 Lokanath’s counsel withdrew the suit “with liberty to file fresh suit with the same cause of action”; the suit and its pending applications were dismissed as withdrawn. lokanath.net, the anonymous critic site, described it as a lawsuit “against child protection advocates”.

He refiled the suit against the same two campaigners and one platform operator (CS(OS) 704/2024, registered on 3 September 2024); this time the court issued notice on his injunction application without an interim order. On 15 September 2025 the court found “that the defendants, by way of their written statements, have justified the comments made in the public domain”. His counsel argued that “the imputations made against the plaintiff are wholly baseless and unjustified”. Noting that the defendants had posted nothing further since 10 August 2024, the court disposed of the application “instead of passing any interim order”, with liberty to return if they took further steps. In an order of 17 September 2026 the court recorded that the defendants plead that their posts “are true and constitute a fair comment made in public interest”, relying on the report of the GBC’s case panel, and that Lokanath Swami “denied the Panel Report” and asserted “that the Panel Report is not the official report of ISKCON and that the website on which it appears does not appear to be an official website of ISKCON”. The report is the one ISKCON News published with the GBC’s 2022 decision (cited above). The court let the defendants file further documents meant to show that the report “emanated from, and was acted upon by, the Governing Body of ISKCON”, expressly without expressing any opinion on their genuineness or evidentiary value. No court has ruled on the merits; the suit was pending as of September 2026. The orders are hosted here as the text published by Indian Kanoon.