PUNE, June 24: The State Government has initiated an inquiry into the affairs of the Pune-based Osho Commune International and the alleged nefarious activities of the foreigners visiting the commune located in the city's posh Koregaon Park area.

A written communication issued recently by State Home Department to the Patit Pawan Sanghatana (PPS), which had sought a probe into the commune affairs, states that a thorough inquiry into the issues raised by the organisation has begun and appropriate action will be taken in the matter.

The PPS had threatened to seek the Mumbai High Court's intervention into the matter after having launched a sustained agitation against the commune affairs a year-and-a-half ago. The PPS in a memorandum submitted to the home department on June 9, 1997, had sought attention to the criminal activities happening in the Koregaon Park area.

The Sangatana demand included an inquiry into the alleged illegal stay of foreigners visiting the commune, their foreign currency dealings and other reported notorious activities like drug trafficking and techno parties.

Welcoming the home department's decision, PPS convenor Sandeep Khardekar today said that the Sanghatana will extend full co-operation to the State home authorities.

``The documentary evidence in possession of the Sanghatana will be handed over to high officials because those running the commune were well connected,'' he said. But Khardekar was piqued at the Pune municipal administration and the office of the joint charity commissioner here for failing to act on the complaints filed by PPS in the past against the commune.

He even threatened to launch an agitation to protest the delay by the authorities concerned in initiating necessary action against the commune.

The municipal administration had issued a show cause notice last year to the commune authorities on the illegal constructions at the Koregaon Park premises. However, the commune authorities had clarified that the Koregaon Park plots on which the commune existed, were registered in the name of various trusts and individuals, Khardekar recalled.

It was in the wake of this that the PPS had filed an application with the joint charity commissioner's office seeking details of the various trusts connected to the commune.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.