Pune's Osho Trust gifts ‘excess land’ to unknown entity

Unknown to most followers of the late spiritual leader, Osho Rajneesh, the Osho International Foundation (OIF) has gifted one of its prime properties in Koregaon Park here to the mysterious New Delhi-based Darshan Trust, which has links with a key OIF trustee, Mukesh Sarda.

This is even as Sarda, on behalf of the OIF, has made another application to the charity commissioner in Mumbai to gift the 6,611-square-foot ‘Osho Sanai’ property on Plot No. 22 in Koregaon Park, to the same trust, as reported by DNA on October 14, 2011, (Osho Trust wants to ‘gift’ Rs8-cr property).

Two Osho followers — Yogesh Thakkar (Swami Prem Geet) and Kishor Raval (Swami Prem Anadi) — who contested this application along with another disciple, Nitin Phulphagar (Swami Nitin Bharati) in challenging various activities of the OIF, made the startling discovery of the first gift application recently.

Certified documents from the charity commissionerate, in the possession of DNA show that in December 2010, the OIF applied to the charity commissioner seeking permission under section 36(1)(a) of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, to gift plot CTS No.3 in Koregaon Park to Darshan Trust, located at A-34, Defence Colony, New Delhi.

This plot, measuring 5,387 square metres in Lane No1 in Koregaon Park, presently serves as an expansive parking lot for the Osho International Meditation Resort, which has a number of properties in this area. The market value of this plot of land is estimated at more than Rs35 crore.

The proposal to gift the land was sanctioned and approved by the charity commissioner, MK Chaure, on March 17, 2011. According to the OIF application, the trustees of Darshan Trust approached OIF “for some space to expand and carry out its activities in Pune” and this matter was discussed in detail by the OIF trustees during a meeting on December 1, 2010.     

During this meeting, Sarda stated that the OIF had excess space on CTS No 3 in Koregaon Park plot “which at the moment is not required” by the foundation. Besides, the OIF was incurring expenses on the maintenance of this plot without deriving any income from it.

The application stated that “after detailed discussion and deliberation it was unanimously resolved that it would be in the interest of the OIF and in furtherance of its objects to donate the Plot CTS No 3 in Koregaon Park, Pune, that is available and not required by the foundation to Darshan Trust, subject to the approval and sanction of the office of the charity commissioner.”

The condition laid down was that the stamp duty, registration charges and other expenses towards the alienation of the property would be borne by Darshan Trust and that the entire process of gifting the property would be handled by Mukesh Sarda.

While the trustees of Darshan Trust were identified as Vidya Khubchandani and Anandkumar Awasthi, those of OIF were identified as Mukesh Sarda, Devendra Singh Deval, Sadhana Belapurkar and Lal Pratap Singh.

In his application, Sarda stated that the OIF was not issuing any public notice about its proposal to gift the property as “the trustees have unanimously resolved to donate the said property to another public trust having similar objects…”

He also stated that no valuation report of the property was obtained as the property was being donated to carry out charitable activities. After conducting a hearing in Sarda’s presence, the proposal was sanctioned and approved by the charity commissioner by his order dated March 17, 2011.

The OIF controls the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, spread out over 35 acres of prime property in Koregaon Park. Osho’s samadhi with his ashes is located on these premises.

Originally established on a 5-acre plot after the then Acharya Rajneesh moved base from Mumbai to Pune in the mid 1970s, the erstwhile Osho Commune gradually expanded to its current size.