Neelkanth Patel aka Neel Patel aka Sugney Swami sex scandal in Mississauga as woman accuses 'celibate' monk of rape

Sugney Swami, aka Neelkanth Patel, is named in a $1 million lawsuit filed by a woman identified only as S.D. who alleges she was raped at her Mississauga temple, the Yogi Divine Society, on Oct. 29, 2015.

Courtesy Toronto Sun

He was a revered monk from India who insisted the depressed young woman come to a Mississauga temple where he could relieve her suffering with a personal spiritual message he’d received directly from their saint.

But when the woman, who can only be identified as S.D., reluctantly arrived at the Yogi Divine Society on Oct. 29, 2015,  she says Sugney Swami had a very different kind of spiritual healing in mind. She claims the monk lured her to a bedroom on the upper floor where he locked the door, confiscated her phone, threw her on his bed and raped her.

In her proposed $1 million lawsuit, she’s suing Sugney, aka Neelkanth Patel, for alleged sexual assault, false imprisonment, breach of trust and mental distress as well as the Yogi Divine Society Canada — where he lived and worshipped — for negligence for their wilful blindness.

Both Sugney and the unmarried woman belong to the Swaminayaran sect of Hinduism. S.D. was going through a difficult break-up with her ex-boyfriend and had turned to her temple for guidance. She alleges Sugney got her contact information and texted that he would consult the spiritual leaders of their faith to help her.

“S.D. was in a vulnerable position and would rely on Sugney as a spiritual and religious mentor and authority figure to advise her, guide her and protect her from harm,” her lawsuit contends.

According to her proposed claim, she’s learned Sugney has been accused before of sexual assault and sexual harassment by other women in India and the U.S. but the Yogi Society allegedly ignored their warnings. Just as they ignored her, she says.

In late 2015, S.D. and her family told the Yogi Society leadership what allegedly happened to her and asked that they revoke Sugney’s status as a monk. Instead, the lawsuit contends the temple launched a “sustained campaign of intimidation” against the family to remain silent and even blamed S.D. for Sugney’s actions.

“I felt betrayed by the leadership of my religion and felt increasingly isolated and hopeless and went into a deeper depression,” she says in an affidavit filed with her motion to seek a publication ban. “In December 2016, my family doctor sent me to the emergency room at the Credit Valley Hospital due to my physical and psychological condition.”

The Yogi Divine Society has not responded to a request for comment. None of the allegations have been proven.

On Dec. 30, 2016, S.D. filed a criminal complaint against Sugney with Peel Regional Police.

“They say they are still investigating,” her lawyer Cizan Suliman says.

Meanwhile, her allegations hit the press in India last year.

Following Sugney’s YouTube denials, she was branded mentally unstable and a woman of “loose morals” who had visited a holy man without a male chaperone. To counter those rumors, she provided a video rebuttal to the media in Gujarat — her identity hidden by a face scarf.

Now she fears that scarf will be torn off if she has to proceed with her civil suit here using her real name. Her lawyer will be in Brampton court next week to seek a publication ban on her identity. Without it, she says she’ll be forced to abandon the lawsuit.

“The Swaminarayan community is a conservative and patriarchal religious community,” she says in her affidavit. “I believe that I will be ostracized by my community if my identity is publicized in the media both because of the stigma of being a victim of sexual assault and because I would be seen as attacking the religion.”

And so she would be victimized yet again.