The Bikram Choudhury Case — Yoga Founder's Sexual Misconduct Lawsuits

The Case

The Bikram Choudhury case is a cluster of U.S. civil lawsuits accusing the founder of Bikram yoga of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape by former students and employees. While no U.S. criminal conviction has been secured, a Los Angeles jury found Choudhury liable in a landmark civil case brought by his former general counsel, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, awarding more than $7 million in damages. Los Angeles prosecutors reviewed a 2013 submission but declined to file criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence.

The Crime

The allegations against Bikram Choudhury span multiple years and multiple women, with reported conduct ranging from repeated obscene sexual comments and harassment in workplace and training settings to alleged sexual assault and rape. In the Jafa-Bodden civil action, the plaintiff described a pattern of harassment culminating in retaliation and termination after she investigated and raised concerns about sexual-misconduct allegations made by other women. Court filings and reporting describe a hostile work environment, retaliation, and wrongful termination claims tied to Choudhury's conduct at Bikram's Yoga College of India.

Broader allegations from former students — collected across seven civil suits — include claims of sexual assault and rape during teacher-training programs, where students often spent weeks in close proximity to Choudhury at intensive retreats.

The Victims

The verified U.S. plaintiffs and accusers include Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, the former legal adviser whose civil verdict drew international attention; Sarah Baughn, described in reporting as the first woman to publicly accuse Choudhury of sexual misconduct; and additional women such as Larissa Anderson and Jill Lawler, who joined the wave of civil litigation. Coverage references a total of seven civil lawsuits brought by former students and staff. The ages of the individual victims were not consistently reported across the verified sources.

Investigation

A criminal case file was submitted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in 2013 for review. After examination, prosecutors said they had insufficient evidence to charge Choudhury criminally — a decision later publicly reaffirmed when the Netflix documentary about the case renewed scrutiny in late 2019.

The civil track, by contrast, moved forward aggressively. Plaintiffs' attorneys gathered testimony from multiple former students and employees, building a portrait of alleged patterns of misconduct during teacher-training sessions and at the Los Angeles-based Bikram's Yoga College of India. The Jafa-Bodden case was tried in Los Angeles Superior Court and supported by documentary and witness evidence about both the harassment and the retaliatory firing.

Trial and Verdict

In January 2016, a Los Angeles jury found Bikram Choudhury liable in the Jafa-Bodden civil case, awarding more than $7 million, including punitive damages. The jury also made findings of malice, oppression, and fraud, supporting the punitive award and reflecting the seriousness of the underlying conduct as the jury saw it.

Choudhury subsequently left the United States and did not satisfy the judgment. As a result, a Los Angeles judge issued an arrest warrant tied to the unpaid civil judgment, seeking to compel his appearance in enforcement proceedings. Because no criminal charges were filed in the U.S., there is no American criminal conviction or prison sentence in this case.

Today

Bikram Choudhury reportedly continues to teach yoga abroad, traveling for international training sessions while remaining largely out of reach of U.S. enforcement, according to reporting on his ongoing teaching activities outside the United States. The 2019 Netflix documentary Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator renewed global public scrutiny of the allegations and brought additional accusers' stories to a broad audience. Video reporting and survivor interviews continue to circulate, including documentary segments and broadcast interviews revisiting the civil cases.

The case remains a touchstone in discussions of accountability in the global wellness industry, the limits of U.S. civil judgments against defendants who relocate abroad, and the gap between civil liability findings and criminal prosecution.