The News Minute | February 28, 2015 | 11.20 pm IST
Bikram Choudhury is the face and founder of a widely popular style of yoga, popularised in the early 1970s - a hot yoga style practiced in a room heated to 40 deg C, along with a humidity of 40 %.
However, the world-famous yoga guru has been slapped with six lawsuits with his most recent case filed on Feb 13, which said that Choudury had raped a Canadian woman who had spent $10,000 from her college fund to attend a nine-week case that allowed her to become a certified teacher, reported AP.
Not only was she expected to massage him while watching late night Bollywood movies with hundreds of other students she was also sexually assaulted many times, said the report. The alleged sexual assault began soon after she began her course in April 2010.
"Throughout the sexual abuse, defendant Bikram Choudhury offered multiple explanations and justifications for his behavior," the lawsuit said. "He would say 'I'm dying, I need you to save me. If I don't have sex, I will die. You are saving my life. You are helping me.' “
A statement by his Yoga College of India, said that "Their claims are false, needlessly bring shame upon the yoga community, and dishonour the health and spiritual benefits that Bikram Yoga has brought to the lives of millions of practitioners throughout the world”
It went on to state that instead of telling their sexual assault stories , the women in question had signed to become “ in these cases following a world-wide and lengthy period of solicitation through letters and social media seeking to convince women to sue Mr. Choudhury.””
Aged 69, Choudhurdy leads teaching seminars wearing nothing but a black speedo , while followers sweat it out in skimpy clothing.
Even though Choudhury has many devotees , the first sexual assault allegations were levelled against him in 2013. It was during the many teacher trainings, that Choudhury had allegedly met and assaulted many of his victims, said the report.