Image: New Delhi Post
A Delhi news site has published the first detailed account of what the former auditor of the ritvik-led ISKCON Bengaluru temple now says happened to him: jewellery, pressure and an affidavit he claims he never properly read. Meanwhile ISKCON Mumbai says the judge hearing Madhu Pandit Dasa’s plea to quash a Kolkata criminal case against him has stepped aside. The questions the auditor’s original filing raised about the temple’s accounts remain unanswered.
NEW DELHI, India — Aiyer V.L. Varadarajan, the Mysuru-based advocate and chartered accountant who audited ISKCON’s Bengaluru operations for years, has asked the Supreme Court to let him withdraw the January 2026 counter-affidavit in which he accused ISKCON Bangalore’s president, Madhu Pandit Dasa, of fabricating and backdating the society’s accounts. In a report published on 12 October, the New Delhi Post sets out the contents of his new affidavit of 6 October and of a police complaint he filed three days earlier, and lists the questions that neither document answers.[1] Akincana Gocara reported the retraction and the recusal of Justice Manoj Misra from the review bench on the same day.[2] On 15 October, a press release issued on behalf of ISKCON (the 1971 Mumbai society) through a public-relations agency said that the judge hearing Madhu Pandit Dasa’s petition to quash a criminal case registered against him and twelve others in Kolkata had recused from the matter on 14 October.[3]
The dispute over the Hare Krishna Hill temple in Bengaluru turns on which legal entity owns it. ISKCON Mumbai, the society registered in 1971, claims the temple; the Bengaluru side says the society registered in Karnataka in 1978 is the relevant entity. ISKCON Bangalore, led by Madhu Pandit Dasa, follows the ritvik system of initiation, in which Srila Prabhupada is taken as the initiating guru of new devotees, and operates independently of ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission, which backs ISKCON Mumbai. The Karnataka High Court ruled against the Bengaluru society in 2011, but the Supreme Court set that judgment aside in May 2025. ISKCON Mumbai’s review petition, Review Petition (Civil) No. 1896 of 2025, is pending.[1][2]
A certified copy of the order sheet of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Calcutta, in Misc. Case No. 40 of 2026, obtained by Akincana Gocara, shows that the complaint was brought by the ISKCON temple at 3C Albert Road, Kolkata, represented by its president Dayaram Dasa (Dinesh Vinayak Kocharekar), against “Adridharan Dasa and twelve others”. The complainant applied under section 173(4) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita on 17 March 2026; the magistrate called for a report from the officer in charge of Shakespeare Sarani police station, and on 9 April 2026, having “perused the enquiry report”, ordered the complaint sent to the police station “for registering the same as an FIR and to start investigation thereon”, with a compliance report to follow.[4]
“Considering the report, I am of opinion that the matter in dispute needs to be investigated by the competent authority.”
P. Banerjee, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Calcutta, order of 9 April 2026[4]
The press release says that Shakespeare Sarani police station then registered FIR No. 56/2026 on 16 April 2026, and that the FIR alleges criminal conspiracy, forgery, fabrication of financial records, criminal breach of trust and dishonest diversion of religious and charitable assets, which the complainant values at approximately ₹15,000 crore.[3]
The police enquiry report annexed to the order, signed by Sub-Inspector Anand Kumar Singh of Shakespeare Sarani police station on 9 April 2026, names the thirteen persons complained against:[4]
Varadarajan is accused no. 5. The enquiry report records the complainant’s account that “a crucial and clinching development” had occurred by way of the affidavit of 21 January 2026 filed by “Accused No. 5, a Chartered Accountant associated with the Bengaluru operations”, before the Supreme Court, in which, the complainant said, he “categorically admitted” the fabrication and backdating of audit reports and the “fraudulent revival of the defunct society”. That is the affidavit Varadarajan asked the Supreme Court on 6 October to let him withdraw.[4][1]
The report sets out the complainant’s case that the accused, as office-bearers of the Mumbai society and its branches, conspired “in or around the year 1999” to take over the Bengaluru temple; that between 1999 and 2001 they fabricated about twelve years of financial statements, audit reports, minutes of meetings that never took place, lists of office-bearers and resolutions, including a resolution dated 9 February 1990; that in about 2001 they filed the backdated records in bulk with the Registrar of Societies; and that part of the conspiracy was planned at the ISKCON premises in Kolkata, which gives the Kolkata court jurisdiction. The sub-inspector concluded that “a prima facie case is made out that a thorough investigation is required to unearth the truth behind the allegations”.[4]
Everything in the enquiry report beyond the magistrate’s own order is recorded as what “the complainant alleged”, “revealed” or “disclosed” during the enquiry. It is not a finding.
The press release adds that ISKCON has commissioned a forensic examination of the disputed documents which, it says, raises “serious questions” about the authenticity of signatures, typing and preparation.[3] The release itself states that the registration of an FIR is not a finding of guilt and that all allegations remain subject to investigation and judicial determination.[3]
According to the New Delhi Post, Varadarajan’s counter-affidavit of January 2026 stated that Madhu Pandit Dasa had asked him, around 2001, to fabricate and backdate audited accounts for the society registered in 1978, and that he had seen records manipulated at the Registrar of Societies.[1] Akincana Gocara’s earlier report described the same filing as alleging that twelve years of accounts were backdated and that minutes were fabricated for governing-body meetings that never took place.[2]
On 3 October, Varadarajan filed a complaint at the Tilak Marg police station in New Delhi alleging that Madhu Pandit Dasa had pressured him, offered him money and made veiled threats. The New Delhi Post notes that a complaint does not establish the truth of its allegations.[1] Akincana Gocara’s report of the complaint said he alleged offers of ₹1 crore and later more than ₹50 crore to say that ISKCON Mumbai had offered him ₹5 crore, a claim he says was false.[2]
Three days later, Varadarajan filed a new affidavit seeking to withdraw the January filing, saying he signed it without properly reviewing it. According to the New Delhi Post, the new affidavit states that representatives of ISKCON Mumbai gave him gold jewellery worth about ₹72 lakh during a personal difficulty and pressured him to sign the earlier affidavit, and that he received no financial incentive for the new filing.[1] Akincana Gocara reported earlier that the January affidavit carries a notary’s certificate stating that it was read and explained to him, and that the new affidavit does not dispute the original audit reports or the filing of twelve years of accounts together in August 2001.[2]
After the FIR was registered, Madhu Pandit Dasa petitioned for the criminal proceedings to be quashed. The press release says that at the hearing the judge recused from the matter, and that the petition’s further listing “will depend on subsequent judicial proceedings”. The covering email dates the recusal to 14 October; the release, dated 15 October, says “today”. Neither names the court or the judge, and Akincana Gocara has found no independent report of the recusal.[3]
The release also repeats claims ISKCON Mumbai says it made before the Supreme Court: that four of the seven members of the Bangalore society’s governing body were Madhu Pandit Dasa, his wife, his wife’s sister and her husband, and that the Akshaya Patra Foundation was “usurped” along with the temple by Madhu Pandit Dasa and his brother-in-law Chanchalapati Dasa. Akincana Gocara has not seen those submissions.[3]
The New Delhi Post lists the matters that the retraction leaves open:[1]
The paper also cautions that a separate order concerning the Akshaya Patra Foundation should be treated as a separate story unless a clear link to the temple dispute is shown.[1]
No court has ruled on any of Varadarajan’s allegations, in either direction, and the Kolkata FIR is at the investigation stage. The New Delhi Post report does not carry a response from ISKCON Mumbai to the jewellery and pressure claims, nor from Madhu Pandit Dasa to the police complaint; the press release carries no response from ISKCON Bangalore or Madhu Pandit Dasa to the FIR’s allegations, and Akincana Gocara has not independently verified any of the accounts.[1][2] The review petition awaits a reconstituted bench after Justice Misra’s recusal on 5 October.[2]
Note on the sources: the New Delhi Post article is unsigned and does not say whether it obtained the affidavits or the police complaint directly. The press release was distributed by PRable Global, a public-relations agency, on behalf of ISKCON Mumbai, and presents that side’s case; it came with a certified copy of the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order of 9 April 2026 and the annexed police enquiry report, which Akincana Gocara has read and quotes above. Any response from ISKCON Bangalore or Madhu Pandit Dasa will be given the same prominence.
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