Hot Yoga Founder Bikram Choudhury Faces Harrasment Lawsuit; Must Pay $900K To Lawyer
Bikram Choudhury, the controversial founder behind the popular Bikram hot yoga system, has been ordered by court to pay a huge sum of $924, 500 to his former lawyer who sued the guru for allegations that include sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and wrong termination from her job.
A unanimous decision by a Los Angeles jury awarded the aforementioned amount as a compensatory damages to be paid to Minakshi Jafa-Bodden by Choudhury for allegedly subjecting her to sexual harassment and retaliation after she started investigating other allegations of his sexual assaults on other women.
"It's an enormous vindication...She [Jafa-Bodden] stood up for what was right at great personal risk to herself and her daughter," exclaimed Jafa-Bodden's lawyer, Carla Minnard as quoted saying by People Magazine.
Jafa-Bodden is also seeking for punitive damages after the jury determined that Choudhury acted with fraud, malice, and oppression when he fired his former legal counsel from her job.
This is just one of the many lawsuits the guru is bound to face. As reported by The Guardian, Choudhury will be facing multiple lawsuits from six other women who also accused him of sexual assaults.
The 69-year-old yoga master emigrated from his native India and moved to the United States to establish his business empire founded on his own brand of yoga named after himself.
According to Independent, Bikram yoga involves a series of strenuous breathing and physical exercises performed for 90 minutes in a heated room with temperature reaching more than 100F (38C).
Daily Mail noted that he attempted to copyright his 26 yoga poses and two breathing exercises but the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against his favor.
