Conviction New religious movements Guru-led movement or ashram Moscow Oblast, Russia · 2019

Russia: 'Kaula Dharma' leader sentenced to 16 years for raping and torturing followers' children

Request a correction or reply

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-proclaimed guru of a tantra-derived movement

Organization

Kaula Dharma

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The victims were the children of followers who lived under the leader's claimed spiritual authority on the movement's property; his guru status over the parents is what placed the children within his physical control.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Ritual, oath, or initiation
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2019-12-17 · conviction and sentence

Russian court, Moscow region. The founder of the tantra-derived movement 'Kaula Dharma', a self-styled guru using the name Mitradevananda Paramahamsa, was sentenced to 16 years' strict-regime imprisonment for raping and torturing minor children of followers who were held in a basement on sect property. Two co-defendants received 15 and 6 years. He had been extradited from Bulgaria in 2017 specifically on the sexual-violence and torture charges.

Documented coercion mechanisms

guru authority over followers and their children living on sect property
children held in a basement on the property

Cited record

Sources

legal news agency court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Суд приговорил к 16 годам колонии основателя секты «Каула Дхарма»', RAPSI (Russian Legal Information Agency), 17 Dec. 2019.: Russian legal news agency reporting the 16-year strict-regime sentence and the co-defendants' terms.
legal news agency court reporting extradition report 'Основатель секты «Каула Дхарма» экстрадирован в Россию', RAPSI, 2 Nov. 2017.: Reports the extradition from Bulgaria at the Prosecutor General's request on the underlying charges.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://rapsinews.ru/judicial_news/20191217/305222468.html Corpus classification: legal-news-agency-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 c1e7fbf873d4e65dd063d5f59d0a553aa2e44ba2503e16270de7b5f2e53b263d
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://rapsinews.ru/incident_news/20171102/280781144.html Corpus classification: legal-news-agency-court-reporting; evidentiary role: extradition-report. SHA-256 42b6b141a93373f989030012305822e4a163d23a544bba914c9aee70b9914b90
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

Named in this record? Request a correction, report a changed disposition, or submit a response.

Related record

Related cases · New religious movements

Browse all 68 New religious movements records

← Explore all cases