OSHO
On 23 October 1985, a federal grand jury issued a thirty-five-count indictment charging Osho and several other disciples with conspiracy to evade immigration laws.
[123] The indictment was returned
in camera, but word was leaked to Osho's lawyer.
[123] Negotiations to allow Osho to surrender to authorities in Portland if a warrant were issued failed.
[123][124] Tension peaked amid rumours of a
National Guard takeover, a planned violent arrest of Osho and fears of shooting.
[125] Having listened to hundreds of hours of tape recordings that Sheela had made, law enforcement authorities later came to believe there was a plan to create a human wall of sannyasin women and children should authorities attempt to arrest their guru.
[117] On 28 October 1985, Osho, his personal physician and a small number of sannyasins accompanying them were arrested without a warrant aboard a rented
Learjet at a
North Carolina airstrip; the group were en route to
Bermuda ($58,000 in cash and 35 watches and bracelets worth $1 million were also found on the aircraft).
[125][126][127] Osho had by all accounts been neither informed of the impending arrest nor of the reasons for the journey.
[124]
Osho's imprisonment and transfer across the country took the form of a public spectacle – he was displayed in chains, held first in North Carolina, then
Oklahoma, and finally in
Portland.
[128] Officials took the full ten days legally available to them to transfer him from North Carolina to Portland for
arraignment.
[128] After initially pleading not guilty to all charges and being released on bail, Osho, on the advice of his lawyers, entered an "
Alford plea" – a type of
guilty plea through which a suspect does not admit guilt, but does concede there is enough evidence to convict him – to one count of having concealed his intent to remain permanently in the U.S. at the time of his original visa application in 1981, and one count of conspiracy to have followers stay in the country illegally by having them enter into
sham marriages.
[129] Under the deal his lawyers made with the United States Attorney's office, he was given a 10-year suspended sentence and placed on five years' probation; in addition, he agreed to pay $400,000 in fines and prosecution costs, to leave the United States and not to return for at least five years without the permission of the
United States Attorney General.
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lankawe hitapu nisa thamai.
