Naomi Menezes, Times of India, India

Osho
How do you plan to substantiate the accusations that you have made against Sheela and her group, of attempted murder and poisoning, conspiracy, espionage, grand larceny?

Every accusation has been given to the police with all the evidences possible, eyewitnesses, and the people who were part in all these conspiracies have confessed. Not a single thing that I have said is without any evidence.

All the rooms of the hotel were bugged. The FBI, the State Police, the Wasco County Police, the City Police – they all have been here for almost two weeks. They were surprised, they could not believe: one-hundred-forty-five rooms in the hotel – all were bugged! My own room was bugged, my caretaker’s room was bugged. My new secretary, Hasya’s whole house was bugged. They have bugged almost the whole commune. And the evidence is there; they have taken all the mechanisms, the wires, the microphones. Every telephone was being taped, they have found the machinery on which all the telephones could be taped simultaneously. They were amazed to know that how sophisticated instruments were being used – Nixon was left far behind.

Three persons in the commune were poisoned. My own physical physician – who has been taking care of my body in India and has been taking my care here – she was afraid of him because he was too close to me, and he may disclose something to me which she never wanted. So the only way was, she first tried to convince me that we have better physicians. I said it is not a question of better physician; it is a question of knowing my body and he knows my body. For ten years he has been looking after it and I am perfectly satisfied so there is no need to change. When I refused completely, then she started thinking to kill him.

First he was poisoned in her room, in a cup of coffee. Because he is a physician, he immediately could think of poison. Ordinarily, nobody would have thought of poison.

My caretaker was poisoned few days before in a cup of tea, in the same manner, in the same place – Sheela’s room – but nobody even thought about it. Just we thought that she has fallen sick. The doctors could not find there is any sickness, so they simply suggested to rest.