Gregorian Bivolaru is escorted to a vehicle, after a hearing at the Romanian Police headquarters in Bucharest, in 2016 (Picture: AP)
A tantric yoga guru has been accused of kidnap, rape and human trafficking after police ‘freed’ dozens of women in Paris.
Gregorian Bivolaru is the leader of Movement for Spiritual Integration in Absolute (MISA), reportedly one of the largest yoga movements in Europe, claiming tens of thousands of members in a dozen countries.
Passionate about spirituality – and pornography – the Romanian national was seen as ‘revolutionising’ the movement for years, despite several scandals in Argentina, India, Italy – and now France.
For European police, he is a far more sinister figure: a master manipulator accused of sexual abuse and exploitation.
French authorities arrested the leader of a multinational tantric yoga organization on November 28, 2023 (Picture: AP)
Officers arrested the 71-year-old and 40 others during a major operation in Paris as part of a major investigation into his movement.
It marked the culmination of a six-year hunt involving Interpol. Police also found 26 women being held in ‘deplorable conditions’ during the raids.
Accounts from alleged victims detailed in the French media portray Bivolaru as a guru who coerced women into sexual relationships under the guise of spiritual elevation spanning decades and continents.
A German woman recounted her alleged entrapment at the age of 21 when she was in the Indian city of Rishikesh in 2019 in search of spiritual enlightenment.
The victim described to Liberation newspaper a grooming process that allegedly included being photographed and filmed naked before her abduction and coerced sexual encounters in a Parisian house.
The group also fostered deep mistrust among its followers against the external world, especially the medical community, urging them to reject vaccinations for Covid and other medical procedures, according to her account.
Another alleged victim, a French woman, told France Info about a five-year ordeal where tantra yoga was fused with astrology and parapsychology to allegedly manipulate members into non-consensual sex under the pretext of spiritual practices.
Despite multiple prosecutions for serious offences in different countries, Bivolaru remained at large for years.
He was convicted in Romania in 2013 for raping a minor but fled the country. He was extradited from France three years later in 2016.
But the self-professed guru only served a year and three months of his sentence before fleeing Romania again in 2017 while on conditional release, and resuming his practices.
He is also wanted by Finland for alleged trafficking in women. His movement was excluded from the international and European yoga associations in 2008.
In the past, Bivolaru has denied accusations of criminal activity and the website forhis movement calls some past allegations ‘fabricated facts’, stressing he is a victim of a witch hunt.
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