Prakashanand Saraswati — Barsana Dham, Driftwood, Texas (convicted; fugitive)
Founder of the Barsana Dham ashram, convicted by a Hays County jury in 2011 on all 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, who fled before the punishment phase and has never served the sentence. The jury assessed 14 years and $10,000 on each count; whether the terms stack was never resolved in the record, and no total is stated here.
Hindu Convicted — fugitive
- Person
- Prakashanand Saraswati ('Shree Swamiji')
- Role
- Founder and spiritual head
- Institution
- Barsana Dham ashram, Driftwood, Texas (Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat) — renamed Radha Madhav Dham after the trial
- Location
- Hays County, Texas
- Status
- Convicted on all 20 counts (March 4, 2011); fled before the punishment phase; fugitive
- Sentence
- 14 years and a $10,000 fine on each of the 20 counts ($200,000 in fines), assessed in absentia; consecutive-vs-concurrent never resolved in the record — no total is stated
Case in brief
Tier 1 · Court-proven — conviction and per-count sentence; the flight as reporting of record states it
Prakashanand Saraswati, known to followers as Shree Swamiji, founded the Barsana Dham ashram near Driftwood, Texas, in 1990. He was indicted on 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, arising from two girls who lived with their families at the ashram in the mid-1990s; arrested at Washington Dulles airport in April 2008, he was released on a $1 million bond posted by a follower. On March 4, 2011, a Hays County jury convicted him on all 20 counts — ten for each girl. The punishment phase was set for Monday, March 7. He spent the weekend at the ashram, was missing by Sunday evening, and the jury assessed his punishment to an empty chair: 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each count.
The record
Tier 1 · Court-proven
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Indictment | 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact (conduct in the mid-1990s) |
| Arrest | April 24, 2008 — Washington Dulles International Airport; $1 million bond |
| Conviction | March 4, 2011 — guilty on all 20 counts (Hays County jury) |
| Sentence assessed | March 2011, in absentia — 14 years + $10,000 per count; $200,000 in fines in total |
| Stacking | Prosecutors asked for consecutive terms; District Judge Charles Ramsay took the question under advisement. No later order resolving it was located — secondary totals (140 years; 280 years) are arithmetic, not a court figure, and are not stated here as fact |
Status
Fugitive. Federal court filings reported in September 2012 (from a U.S. Marshals affidavit) describe how followers moved him into Mexico about two days after the verdict, then — his appearance altered — to India in November 2011 on a false passport; the Marshals’ lead investigator called the devotee network’s operation ’the most sophisticated scheme I’ve seen as far as fugitive investigations go.’ In 2015 the Marshals Service believed he was living in India, between New Delhi and Mussoorie. No arrest, capture, extradition, return, or death appears in any reporting of record after 2015 that this build could find. He has never served the sentence. This file does not state a present location, or that he is living today, as fact: if alive, he would be 97. (A claim that Interpol has issued a red notice appears in a single unsourced summary; it was not verified at any primary or reporting-of-record source and is not carried.)
The institution
After the trial, the ashram was renamed Radha Madhav Dham and its images and mentions of Saraswati were removed — reported within a month of the verdict. That distancing is the institution’s own act and is recorded as such; the flight itself, on the federal filings as reported, was the work of his devotees.
Records requested & responses
This archive has not filed records requests in this case. The file rests on the published sources below and will be updated if court or institutional records are obtained, or if that changes.
Sources
- San Antonio Express-News (March 9, 2011) — verdict on all 20 counts; 14 years and $10,000 per count; stacking deferred by the judge, archived at BishopAccountability.org: bishop-accountability.org
- Hindustan Times (March 9, 2011) — 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact; per-count sentence; concurrency to be decided later, archived at BishopAccountability.org: bishop-accountability.org
- Houston Chronicle (September 25, 2012) — the federal filing: Mexico, then India on a false passport, archived at BishopAccountability.org: bishop-accountability.org
- CNN / The Hunt (August 6, 2015) — the 2011 conviction and failure to appear; the Marshals’ belief he was in India: gantnews.com
Filed October 25, 2026, from the published sources below. Minor victims are never named or identified in this file.