Myth: Sant Thakar Singh murdered a German woman in India in 1983, and they never found her body.
Status: False.
Origins:
In January 1983, 44 year old Mrs. Rosemarie M. (we withhold her last name out of respect for the family’s privacy), a seriously ill German citizen died in India. Together with a group of Western visitors, she had followed Sant Thakar Singh on a speaking tour in India from the city of Delhi to the city of Calcutta, now called Kolkata. During a stay in a small town along the way, her health deteriorated seriously. Sant Thakar Singh was called to her private accommodation where Mrs. M was being looked after by the other travellers on the same tour. A doctor was also called. While Sant Thakar Singh spoke soothing words to Mrs. M, in the presence of other initiates, she died a natural death. The doctor confirmed that Mrs. M had died of natural causes. Mrs. M’s family and the German embassy were informed. According to Indian regulations, the corpse had to be burned due to the lack of suitable refrigerated transport. Subsequently her ashes were scattered over the Hooghly River—a distributary of the River Ganges in West Bengal—during a religious ceremony, as is custom for that region of India.
In April, 1984, a claim was presented to the Prosecutor’s office in Munich that Sant Thakar Singh had murdered Mrs. M. The presentation of this claim was not made by Mrs. M’s family members, but rather by a journalist. Officers of the German Church’s section on sect and cult matters and others announced to the press, radio, and TV that Sant Thakar Singh had murdered Mrs. M. But on March 7, 1986, the Munich Prosecutor’s office dropped the proceedings because there was no evidence that any third party was at fault in Mrs. M’s death. The Prosecutor’s office stated there was simply no evidence to support the claim made against Sant Thakar Singh.
In 1993, a sensational film created by the film producer L. Knauer repeated the claim that Sant Thakar Singh was suspected of Mrs. M’s murder. Based on Mr. Knauer’s claims that he had found new witnesses, and based on press reports published by the commission for cults and sects of the German Church, the Munich Prosecutor opened extensive international investigative proceedings into the claims against Sant Thakar Singh. As part of the investigation, witnesses who were present at Mrs. M’s death came forward and confirmed that Mrs. M had died of natural causes. When Mr. Knauer’s witnesses were questioned, the Prosecutor’s office discovered they had no knowledge about the circumstances of Mrs. M’s death. In some cases the individuals, surprised to be considered Mr. Knauer’s “new witnesses,” testified under oath that the information they had about Mrs. M’s death had been given to them by the same Mr. Knauer. On July 21, 1997, the Munich Prosecutor’s office dropped the second investigative proceedings because there was no evidence to substantiate the claims against Sant Thakar Singh.
Finally, one of the originators of the murder allegation who appears in Mr. Knauer’s 1993 film retracts his own allegations six years later. In his 1999 deposition, he describes how Mr. Knauer pressured him into making the false allegations on film.
After legal proceedings by the German legal system cleared Sant Thakar Singh’s name on not just one, but on two occasions, Know Thyself as Soul Foundation, International, has vigorously pursued legal action to protect Sant Thakar Singh’s reputation from such false claims.
It is very easy to make sensational claims against anybody. The legal system is set up not only to confirm if a legitimate suspicion exists that should lead to a trial, but also to prevent frivolous or unsubstantiated claims from being made against innocent members of the public, whether by mistake or ill-intentioned.
Sources:
- Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office verdict, 1986-03-07
- Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office verdict, 1997-07-21
- Notarized testimony of Mr. Gupta, former co-worker in an Indian organization supporting the work of Sant Thakar Singh
Last updated: 30 Apr 2010