Guru accused of abuse arrested

To his followers, he was “Grieg,” their guide through tantra yoga toward enlightenment and a higher state of consciousness. For European police, Gregorian Bivolaru represents a far more sinister figure: a master manipulator accused of sexual abuse and exploitation.

The arrest this week in the Paris region of the 71-yearold Romanian yoga guru and 40 others marked the culmination of a six-year manhunt. The raid, led by 175 officers of a French police unit that combats sectrelated crime, also freed 26 people, who were described by authorities as sect victims that had been housed in deplorably dirty and cramped conditions.

On Friday, 15 of the suspects were being presented to a judge who could hand them preliminary charges. Accounts from alleged victims detailed in the French media portray Bivolaru as a guru who coerced women into sexual relationships under the guise of spiritual elevation spanning decades and continents.

Bivolaru’s group, initially known as MISA (“Mouvement pour l’Intégration Spirituelle vers l’Absolu”) and later as the Atman yoga federation, allegedly engaged in non-consensual sexual activities under the facade of tantra yoga teachings.

Despite expulsion from global yoga federations and legal scrutiny for prostitution, sexual slavery and human trafficking, the group’s “ashrams” were centres for indoctrination and sexual exploitation disguised as spiritual enlightenment, according to the official.

The Atman federation meanwhile described the situation to the AP in an email as a “witch hunt” and highlighted that some member schools had successfully won cases at the European Court of Human Rights, demonstrating human rights violations against them.

However, a 2018 ruling by the court, as seen by the AP, seems more to underscore how Bivolaru’s multinational activities have served to hamper efforts to actually apprehend him. He had obtained political refugee status in Sweden, thereby delaying legal proceedings in Romania. Finnish media reported systematic sexual exploitation at Bivolaru’s Helsinki yoga school, and in 2017, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation issued an international arrest warrant for him for alleged aggravated human trafficking.

An ex-member of the Natha Yoga Centre in Denmark told the BT newspaper, described women being treated like slaves, overburdened with chores and sworn to silence. The woman revealed that the alleged exploitation and sexual abuse extended to the distribution of films, including one sold at gas stations across Denmark and another shot on a ship in the Black Sea.