The State - News from July 29, 1986

Berkeley Hare Krishna members were urged by a San Francisco federal judge to reach an out-of-court settlement of their suit accusing leaders of the sect in West Virginia of trying to take over the Berkeley temple. Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, leader of the New Vrindaban community in Moundsville, W.Va., and Hansudutta, ousted head of the Berkeley temple, were charged in the lawsuit with a systematic campaign to “raid” $1 million in assets of two California groups and take control of the Berkeley temple. The two groups, which filed the suit, are the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of the Bay Area and the Mount Kailasa Foundation, a group of about 100 members in Lake County. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel scheduled trial of the suit for September of next year but prodded both sides to consider mediating their dispute. New Vrindaban is being investigated by a federal grand jury in the murder of Steven Bryant, an excommunicated Krishna.