Private Jet Whisks Guru to Caribbean : British Brushoff Sends Bhagwan South

Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh flew to the Caribbean in a private jet today after being denied entry to Britain as an undesirable and being held overnight at Heathrow Airport, the Home Office said.

Rajneesh arrived Thursday night from Greece, which deported him earlier in the day. The Home Office, which issues visas, said four of the six people with the guru were not British nationals and also were denied entry, while two with British citizenship were allowed in.

A spokesman for the Home Office said Rajneesh was not allowed into Britain “because of his undesirability, in view of his convictions in the United States.”

Rajneesh left the United States in November after pleading guilty to two violations of U.S. immigration laws, and stayed in India and Nepal before going to Greece.

“He has gone to the West Indies, and I don’t know exactly where,” the Home Office spokesman said. The guru’s private jet left about 1 p.m., he said.

The spokesman said Rajneesh was held overnight at a detention center in a building at Heathrow, where he had access to a telephone but could not move about freely.

The guru’s presence in Britain was not made public until shortly before he left.

Greece deported him Thursday after a two-week stay at a Greek film director’s villa on the island of Crete in the southern Aegean Sea.

While there, he ran afoul of the Greek Orthodox Church for his free-love teachings and alleged orgies, and of the government, which he said was run by “idiots.”