$1mn fine on Bikram

Prominent Indian-American Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury was asked to pay $924,500 as compensatory damages to his former lawyer by a US court over allegations that he sexually harassed her and fired her

Washington, Jan. 26: Prominent Indian-Am-erican Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury has been asked to pay $9,24,500 as compensatory damages to his former lawyer by a US court over allegations that he sexually harassed her and fired her for probing claims of abuse made by other women against him.

Attorney Minakshi JafaBodden in her lawsuit claimed that she suffered gender discrimination, wrongful termination and sexual harassment while working for 69-year-old Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga.

Los Angeles jury deliberated for about a day, before returning with a unanimous verdict in favour of Minakshi.

During testimony, Choudhury strongly denied allegations of sexual assault against him.

Choudhury described accusations of mistreatment and abuse of employees as “lies” and “big lies.”

“I don’t do that,” he testified. “I don’t have to.”

Choudhury said Minakshi was let go in 2013 because she did not have a license to practice law in the United States, the Los

Angeles Times reported. The jury found that Choudhury acted with malice, oppression and fraud.