Czech police say they are seeking to prosecute the leader of a tantra cult believing in sexual cures for trafficking in women.
Czech police are seeking to press charges against a trantra spriritual guru who, they say, gulled dozens of women and girls to have sex with him as part of his ritual "cure" for bad karma.
The special police division for combating organized crime, the (ÚOOZ), told Czech Position that it had submitted a dossier to the public prosecutor calling for charges of trafficking in people to be pressed against cult leader Jaroslav Dobeš, the so-called alpha male of the group.
"We have asked for the public prosecutor for a decision on the form prosecution should take," ÚOOZ spokesman Pavel Hanták told Czech Position. "At this stage of the procedure we cannot give out much more information."
Hanták said that the dossier against Dobeš, who describes himself as an artist, digital and humanitarian photographer as well as author and spiritual healer, had been filled out following a nationwide appeal in January on a special website for "victims" of his group to come forward and relate their experiences.
The Czech daily newspaper Právo said that while on the face of it Dobeš and other members of the group promised lessons in yoga and studies in Eastern philosophy, in practice the pupils were encouraged to take part in sex adventures with the male leaders of the sect as a means of escaping from their negative past. Ritual sex with the leader Dobeš formed part of the cure.
"Many of the women who underwent the unwinding treatment or who took part in the rituals later told the police or through an Internet site that they had been raped or sexually abused," the paper reported. "They had no idea of what the rituals with guru Jára meant and did not consent to such sex games," the paper said.
A website "infopoetrie" carrying the police appeal for information about the globe-trotting guru recounts the experience of one person claiming to be a former instructor at Dobeš’ Esoteric School of Poetri in the Czech Republic. She says she built up a picture of how the sect worked over two years and gathered the experiences of women "treated" by the guru.
Dobeš or his right-hand woman, Bára, who was his student for 12 years, maintain that women have "hooks" or problems from previous relationships and that sucked up their energy, she said.
She said Dobeš promised to get rid of the "hooks" through special personal sessions: "Bára arranges you a very special meeting with Jára, because he "re-hooks" only 4 women a year. You will get 30 minutes of rough sex with the un-faced Master in the hotel room. Then Bára takes pictures of you and offer you an energetic collage, that [the] Master will make, so called Astrofocus. And with all that, the healing ends," the report continues.
In fact, Dobeš had daily "unhooking sessions" more than once a day with Czechs and foreigners who flew in for his curative services. The sessions were with sexually active women and also virgins, according to the report. He also physically abused instructors in the sect, " the report continues.
The head of the special Czech police squad, Robert šlachta, told Právo that "the injured in connection with these events could be dozens of women and girls." He added that Dobeš would face other charges if the trafficking ones were not pressed. Other charges could follow against other leaders of the cult, he added.
Police could not comment on the current whereabouts of Dobeš, although he apparently spends a lot of time travelling, especially in Thailand. The group’s website records "spiritual trekking" trips to the Solomon Islands, Japan, Bali, India and Nepal over recent years.
Prodigious author
As an artist and author Dobeš works under various pseudonyms. His recent works include a trantra novel "Casanova’s Sutra or the secrets of love and sex," priced at a modest Kc 390, and a book about Spiritual Trekking costing Kc 5,600. The latest book, his seventeenth, is "De Sade’s Sutra," after the famous French libertine nobleman. According to the cult’s website, Dobeš has recently had exhibitions of his photo’s and collages in the Czech cities of Prague, Olomouc, Brno and Zlín.
The group is reported to be mainly active in the eastern Czech region of Moravia.
