What is true is that he was arrested and taken to Caernarfon police station, where he gave a sworn statement. He was then released on bail. But the charge was one of Assault.
The person he assaulted will be well known to all of you it was Mira (Muller-Grosse), and she has been a loyal and much-loved member of the LIFE Foundation for 16 years. Why she was assaulted will be a mystery to all of us who know her.
The facts
On Christmas Eve, 2004, Mira came over from Germany, where she had been on outreach for the Foundation for many years. She wanted to say farewell to her friends and particularly to thank Mansukh Patel for all the benefits she had received from him. They met in the small office at the Ty Gwyn farmhouse and were joined by three other members.
In Mira’s sworn statement to the police she gives, literally, blow-by-blow details of what happened to her during the unprovoked assault. The police officer handling the case has confirmed seeing the clearly visible, blood filled contusions around her neck. Her other injuries, suffered over a period of 20 minutes continuous violence, caused her pain for weeks.
Mansukh Patel stated to the police that the only physical contact that he had with Mira was to shake her hand in friendship (which in itself is unusual in the community). The three witnesses, Andrew Wells, Kate Cauldwell and Yamuna (Sally Langford) supported his statement. We must pity these three witnesses, for they were also accomplices to what happened.
Pity Andrew Wells: when Mira asked for someone to help her he stood back, watching a woman being assaulted and pity Kate and Yamuna, watching one of their sisters being humiliated. They did nothing either.
When Mira managed to leave Ty Gwyn she went straight to Snowdon Lodge to collect her belongings. She met a sister and told her what had just happened to her. In the farmhouse, she was given some food by other sisters and brothers, and she also told them that she had just been assaulted by Mansukh Patel and that she was leaving. She was shocked and in tears and they could not have failed to see how distressed she was.
That same evening she reported the assault to Bangor Police.
As in so many cases, after carrying out a full investigation, the police could not proceed with charges against Mansukh Patel due to lack of proof. Truth nevertheless remains the truth, even if unproven. Therefore it will be up to each of us to find out for ourselves and make our personal choice, what we want to support, what we want to associate with, where we want to stand.
That is the reason why we feel we owe you this information. What you do with it remains fully up to you.
We were criticised about our anonymity: “It was not brave of us”, one person said. Remaining anonymous was a difficult decision for us to make. We are sorry about this but hope that you will understand, that because several people have made allegations of receiving barely-disguised threats of physical violence in the past if they did not remain quiet about some of the things that were happening in the Life Foundation, we felt we had no choice.
Some have found it difficult to reconcile the unpleasant violence that Mira was subjected to by Mansukh Patel with all the inspiring things the LF are publicly doing. They do not doubt what happened to Mira but cannot imagine how it could have happened. You have to understand that his violence has been well concealed, but people have experienced this part of his behaviour over many years. This can be a shocking discovery, which sadly we now know to be true.
A number of people have commendably gone straight to the LF and asked for an explanation. The answers they received were contradictory. Some have been told, “Nothing happened at all”. Another was told that, to Mansukh’s very great regret, he did have to use physical force on Mira (though why was not explained). Guru Rita admitted to another person that violence did take place. The most recent excuse was that Mansukh had to shake Mira to help her spiritually.
Now compare those four differing answers to what Mansukh Patel told the police in a sworn statement. All he did, he said, was to shake hands with Mira when she was leaving! As we know, the three direct witnesses to his violent assault on Mira fully confirmed his statement. This was shameful.
Please remember. In recent years we have all been strong supporters of the Life Foundation and do not have angry feelings towards our friends there but we do now feel indignation. We know that some of them genuinely do not know the truth about Mansukh Patel. Did you know that nearly 1/3rd of the long-term membership have left since 2002 ? And those who leave are often treated with contempt, hostility and personally discredited by the Life Foundation. Although we parted company with the LF for varying reasons there seems to be common agreement among us all that the organisation had deteriorated so much that we no longer wanted to remain there. We now know the truth about what had really been happening behind the scenes and which had been concealed from us. One man’s megalomania.
All we can do is to suggest you all have a responsibility to discover the truth about Mansukh Patel for yourself. Keep on asking questions; don’t accept easy answers; join up the dots and see what picture emerges. That is what we had to do and it is not a comfortable experience. But if you are interested in the truth, you have a responsibility to find out the facts and like us, you may feel you have to make them known.
(augustus 2005)