'Raped over 50 times in Osho's ashrams': UK woman recalls ordeal

A woman from the UK, who was just a child when she joined controversial godman Osho's cult, has alleged that she was raped over 50 times during her time there in the name of "free love".

According to a report by The Times, the victim, 54-year-old Prem Sargam, was sexually exploitated in the cult of Osho from the age of six, across the three ashrams she grew up in.

Sargam's horrific ordeal began when her father abandoned their home in the UK and joined Osho's ashram in Pune. Sargam, who was just six at the time, and her mother were left behind.

Soon after, Sargam and her mother were drawn to the cult. As per the cult's rules, they changed their names and adopted other practices, including a philosophy that suggested that children were obstacles to the sexual freedom of parents.

In the interview with The Times, Sargam explained that the movement started by Osho also pushed a philosophy that urged children to regularly watch sex. Girls, meanwhile, were told to seek out adult men for sexual guidance as soon as they hit puberty.

The 54-year-old went on to say that she was forced to engage in sexual activities from the age of seven: "Even in my seven-year-old mind, I thought what a strange thing to be doing," Sargam told the publication.

Between the age of seven and 11, Sargam and her friends were coerced into performing sexual acts on adult men living in the commune, before these acts escalated to rape.

Sargam told The Times that she first was raped when she was 12-years-old and that this exploitation continued afterwards as well, when she was moved to the Medina ashram in Suffolk, and later, to the US.

By the time she had move Stateside, Sargam had been raped over 50 times, as per the report. "It was only at 16 that I understood what had happened," she told the publication.

The Osho cult

Formed by the now deceased Acharya Rajneesh (who later came to be known as Osho), the cult rose to prominence in the 1970s and attracted primarily Western followers who were seeking spiritual enlightenment.

Osho's emphasis on supposed "free love" and his advocacy of promiscuity (that too from the age of 14) earned him the moniker "Sex Guru", but in reality, the cult functioned as a hub for sexual exploitation in the garb of spiritual enlightenment.

An upcoming documentary titled Children of the Cult will tell Prem Sargam’s story, along with those of two other British women who escaped Osho's cult.

"I want the world to know what happened to me and countless others," Sargam told The Times.