Local News in Brief : Sect Orders Monk to Return to India

An Indian monk accused of sexual misconduct by some of his former devotees has been ordered back to India by the religious organization he serves.

The action came after more than 40 neighbors of the Jain Meditation Center in Long Beach held a meeting to discuss the allegations against Yogeesh Muni, the former director of the center that is in a four-bedroom house overlooking the ocean in the city’s historic Bluff Park area.

Also present was Mahendra S. Jain, lay president of the Los Angeles chapter of the International Mahaviv Jain Mission, which the monk represented. “If the people don’t like him,” Jain said, “he cannot stay. We have put him out” of the meditation center.

Muni, 32, maintains that he did nothing wrong.

A former devotee has alleged that she was impregnated by the monk through the practice of Tantric yoga, an ancient form of yoga that often involves sexual intercourse. The devotee filed a complaint with the Long Beach Police Department, but police eventually determined that no crime had been committed.

Other former devotees also said they had been the objects of unwanted sexual advances by the monk.