The following is the report of Anandan Tritha Dasa who was Madhu Pandit Dasa secretary for the previous twelve years, to Bhima Dasa the General Secretary of the ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) Bureau [the governing body of ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971)] stating his reasons for leaving the Bangalore temple. This report was made sometime in May-June 2001 at about the same time that Adridharana Dasa lost his case in the Kolkata courts. The report is rife with Madhu Pandit’s fiduciary malfeasance, that is, egregious misconduct by a person in a position of trust.
He enumerates several schemes by Madhu Pandit Dasa to divert temple funds into his personal control by creating several trusts of which he is the sole or controlling trustee with the aim of harming ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971). How Madhu Pandit Dasa lacked “good faith” and was just making a show of reconciliation in order to carry on his plans by the tactic of “talk peace and buy time.”
He reveals how Madhu Pandit Dasa was conspiring to steal the Bangalore branch of ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) by using the counterfeit “ISKCON Karnataka (reg. Bangalore 1978)” started by the swindler Shankha Brita Dasa.
He reveals gross theft of money and assets by Jai Chaitanya Dasa but this goes unchecked by Madhu Pandit Dasa for unexplicable reasons leaving Anandatirtha Dasa to suspect that somehow Jai Chaitanya Dasa is blackmailing Madhu Pandit Dasa and in fact he later states that once Jai Chaitanya Dasa threatened to “reveal Madhu Pandit Dasa’s secret matters to the GBC.” Perhaps this is why Madhu Pandit Dasa has tolerated Jai Chaitanya’s illicit relationship with his own wife Bhakti Lata dd for so many years. We wonder what these secrets could be.
<Letter of Ananda Tirtha Dasa Begins>
To,
H G Bhima Dasa,
General Secretary,
ISKCON Bureau
Sub: Suspension of Madhu Pandit Dasa based on the financial mismanagement report.
Dear Bhima Prabhu,
I am hereby giving below a report on the financial dealings of Madhu Pandit Dasa that are endangering the interest of ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971). I, as Madhu Pandit ‘s secretary and treasurer, simply executed his instruction out of fear. I am placing these facts before you to take necessary action against Madhu Pandit in the interest of ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971).
Thanking you ,
Your servant,
Ananda Tirtha Dasa
Report From Ananda Tirtha Dasa – Madhu Pandit Dasa’s Secretary and Treasurer for the last 12 years
Report begins ————–
The various trusts operating in Bangalore are:
1. Sri Radha Gopinatha Seva Trust
2. Sri Goura Nitai Seva Trust
3. Sri Venkateshwara Seva Trust
4. Sri Krishna Balaram Seva Trust
5. Sri Narasimha Seva Trust
6. Sankirtan Seva Trust (SST)
7. Goloka Seva Trust (GST)
8. ISKCON Charities (IC)
SST operates the paraphernalia sales. GST operates the incense business. IC is not a daily operational trust but has a deposit of Rs. 52 lakhs. All the 5 deity trusts put together have a total deposit of Rs. 1.5 crores. GST has a property worth Rs. 56 lakhs (purchase value) (17424 sq ft area) and all the five trusts put together have undivided share in a similar sized property with same purchase value. This property owned jointly by ISKCON, congregation devotees and the deity trusts was to be used for an apartment project.
After the guru issue broke out in June 1998 the congregation devotees who had booked the apartments pulled out. Their share was purchased by ISKCON. But later during the year 2000 these shares were transferred to the 5 deity trusts i.e. the shares were purchased from ISKCON by the trust and money for this was pumped into the trust from ISKCON. This was done by MPD (Madhu Pandit Dasa) without any Bureau permission and in apprehension of any action against him.
The same is with the property owned by GST. ISKCON paid an advance of Rs.16.5 lakhs and entered into an agreement with the owner. Later this property was transferred to GST by funds pumped from ISKCON. Even the advance was paid back by GST to ISKCON with funds generated from ISKCON. This again was done by MPD without the permission of the Bureau.
The prasadam sales (about Rs 40,000 daily on week days) which is only cash and the kalyan mantap money (90% cash) was being put into ISKCON as a hundi collection. After the Bureau notice for the March 2nd, 2001 MPD ordered all the prasadam sales and kalyan mantap cash collections and expenditures to be operated through the 5 deity trust (1 to 5 mentioned above). This is being done through a rent deed with portions of the prasadam sales counter and the cooking area being rented by ISKCON to the trusts. MPDs idea is that this will cut the main source of income to ISKCON and when Bureau takes over the Bangalore temple after suspending MPD they will not be able to operate as the finance is being handled by the trusts for which MPD is the Managing Trustee. And further if ISKCON attempts to get the money from prasadam sales or tries to cancel the rent deed then MPD as the Managing Trustee can file case against ISKCON and the case will go on for years. MPD explained these intentions and I as his secretary and treasurer carried out his order.
A proposal was made by MPD (under pressure) to make some Bureau members as trustees of the 5 deity trusts in Bangalore. The names suggested by MPD for this were Mahaman Pr, Bhima pr and Yaso pr. However MPD told me that his idea in selecting these devotees are because they have foreign passports and so can be easily removed as trustees in case of any Bureau attack.
Though a peace proposal was being worked out MPD told me that his idea is “talk peace and buy time” so that slowly in a year’s time all finances and properties will be fully operational through the trusts (proof of having run for one year will help in court case) and ISKCON will only be for name sake.
In 1978 Sankabrit Das the then TP of Bangalore made an “ISKCON Karnataka” registration and acquired an FCRA registration. Since the FCRA account was not being used a nill report was being filed every year to the home ministry. MPD is now planning to use this registration and is working very speedily towards creating a framework where in he can be able to present all present ISKCON properties and funds as belonging to “ISKCON Karnataka” for which MPD is the sole trustee.
The farm is being handled by only one devotee called Jai Chaitanya Dasa (JCD). Nobody else knows the operations of the farm, which is not at all transparent. This is inspite of the fact that JCD has a history of having run away 4 times from the temple. More than that he has committed a serious criminal offence of having stolen ISKCON money and purchased 13 acres of land in Kerala and built a bungalow all worth Rs. 40 lakhs. This scandal of JCD was discovered in Sept 98 though he purchased the land in 1996 and had built the bungalow by 1997. Moreover he has been spending ISKCON money in cultivating the land with various cash crops, as he was into organic farming. When MPD knew this he asked JCD to sell everything and return the money to ISKCON. However only Rs. 2.5 lakhs has come back to ISKCON. Inspite of all this no action is being taken on JCD and the farm still continues to get Rs. 3 lakhs from ISKCON per month (before year 2000 it was Rs. 5 lakh per month). JCD continues to handle the farm finance. [Editor's note as of today Jai Chaitanya Dasa is one of the Governing Council Members of Madhu Pandit’s counterfeit ISKCON (reg. Bangalore 1978)]
The produce from the farm are sold to SST, which in turn sells it to the public at the counters in the temple. Apart from this there are also cash sales directly happening in the farm for which there is no account. A “Hare Krishna Nature Farm” account is opened in farm operated by JCD. I am not sure whether he is directly pumping the cash sales into this account. All this is easily possible since there is no track of the amount of produce generated since he is the only devotee handling the farm and all others are employees.
JCD has a record of a very poor sadhana and is involved in an illicit affair with a congregation girl. With all this JCD continues to go scot-free as he seems to be blackmailing MPD with something.
Enough attempts were made by me to bring transparency into the farm matters. The vice president Chanchalapati Dasa also has serious disagreement with the way the farm was being run and asked me to take up the farm responsibility and make a step-by-step proposal to clean up the system and he would present it to MPD. I agreed to take this major responsibility and made the proposal but nothing further happened as JCD threatened he would not allow any one else to interfere and would take MPDs “secret matters” to the GBC.
I was told by MPD to convert all donations by SST to ISKCON (Rs. 3 lakhs every month) as loan so that in case the Bureau takes action he will have in record a huge loan owned by ISKCON to SST and he could go to the court for this. MPD and Chanchalapathi Dasa are trustees for this trust. However I never executed this order and only did it in some cases whenever MPD remembered and asked
Report Ends————.
<Ananda Tirtha Dasa’s letter ends>
Visit: www.ISKCON-BDA.org to find out more about the frauds of Madhu Pandit Dasa.