“He has helped me and millions across the world,” said Narmada Iyer, 38, of Atlanta. “He is my god and he is a righteous man.”
But the Hindu leader is shifting his temple from Norcross, Ga., to an old flea market he purchased in June at 2222 Olive Road in Dayton. He has also purchased a home in the 4300 block of Baywood Street in Dayton.
His move and purchases follow the bankruptcy and liquidation of the Hindu Temple of Georgia, which Annamalai founded as a registered nonprofit organization.
Annamalai calls his new temple the Hindu Temple of Ohio and has nicknamed the property “Vishal’s Ranch” after his son. Annamalai also has started or been affiliated with Hindu temples in California and Arizona and advertises in his magazine, Karma, he wants to build 51 temples across the country.
He said the Dayton temple is undergoing a purification ceremony and visitors are not allowed in at this time.
News of Annamalai’s arrival surprised locals Hindus, including Ashwani Kumar, a priest at the Hindu Temple of Dayton.
“I don’t know how he calls it the similar name to our temple,” Kumar said. “This is very serious and I will take it up with our board.”
What’s troubling, Kumar said, is numerous pictures on the Internet and in newspapers of Annamalai, 45, holding his right hand up to his shoulder with a spinning dial in his hand — a gesture of Hindu gods.
“Only gods do this and these are our gods,” said Kumar, pointing to statues that anchor his temple in Beavercreek. “To claim you are a god is a very serious matter.”
Fees for religious services cause complaints
Hinduism is a medley of religious, philosophical and cultural ideals that originated in India.
It is the world’s third-largest form of religion behind Christianity and Islam, with more than one billion followers worldwide. Its followers adhere to beliefs that include Dharma, or righteous duty, reincarnation and Karma.
Many Hindus worship at home, but call on priests or pundits to perform ceremonies for funerals, prayers, engagements and other events. Fees for those services can range from $50 to $500 depending on how far priests have to travel and what is needed, a review of various temple websites and publications showed.
Some Hindu temples like the one in Beavercreek publish a fee list for religious services. Annamalai said he does not circulate such a list, but advertises his services without a pay scale through his Karma magazine, which he distributes for free.
Those unpublished fees are at the heart of a libel/slander lawsuit Atlanta attorney Mark Scott filed on behalf of three people who claim Annamalai “fraudulently” overbilled them for religious services and has harassed, intimidated or tried to sue them to recoup payment.
In the lawsuit Scott filed last year in Gwinnett County, Ga., he wrote:
“The practice at (the Hindu Temple of Georgia) has been to encourage worshippers to provide payment for these services by the use of credit cards, and a pattern of fraudulent, abusive or multiple charges to cards, without the authorization of the card holder, has emerged. Charges for religious services have also risen to amounts unheard of at other Hindu temples.
“Rituals, prayers or observances which tradition dictates might warrant a contribution of up to a few hundred dollars to another Temple or priest are routinely provided in exchange for fees up to several thousands of dollars at HTG, with prices set only after Defendants ascertain what the devotee does for a living or has the ability to pay.”
A jury trial has been set in the case for Sept. 20 in Gwinnett County, according to court records.
Religious clashes led to lawsuits
John Scaccia, a Dayton attorney representing Annamalai, said his client first began training in atharava vedid — a 7,000-year-old Hindu science taught to select people — when he was 5. Scaccia added that it’s not uncommon in India for people to use multiple names and references for one another.
The rituals offered by Annimalai’s temple include an astrological reading as well as daily prayers conducted by one or more priests over a set period of days. Longer prayer sessions are interspersed throughout the process, Scaccia said.
Those paying for the prayers can be present for the longer sessions and also receive a video recording of these longer sessions. The person paying for the prayers decides how many priests should be involved in the ceremonies, Scaccia said.
“It depends on what the person wants and what they’re looking for,” Scaccia said.
In October 2008, Annamalai was charged by Gwinnett County authorities with theft, in a case related to credit card transactions, as well as practicing medicine without a license. In 2009, a charge of theft by taking was filed against Annamalai.
District Attorney Danny Porter later dropped the charges.
Porter said the theft charges were dismissed because those leveling them gave conflicting statements about their understanding of the temple’s refund policies for religious services they purchased.
“At one point, they said they understood the policy, at another, they said no,” Porter said.
Authorities also could not directly link Annamalai with the transactions related to the criminal complaints, Porter said.
“That’s why I say, if he’s starting up there, there are several layers of corporate entity between him and the actual transaction,” Porter said. “That’s his normal way of working. And then what he would do is either sue or try and take arrest warrants for false statements against anyone who spoke out against him. That doesn’t include the religious issues. He would threaten them with religious consequences, too, if they spoke out against him.”
Court records from four different counties in Georgia show that Annamalai has filed at least 20 defamation lawsuits against former devotees or media outlets since 2009. None of the lawsuits have been adjudicated.
Scaccia said Annamalai filed lawsuits against those who sought criminal charges not as a retaliatory measure, but “because these guys weren’t going to stop and he had to do something to make them stop.”
Much of the confusion among those who accused Annamalai of theft stemmed from changes made to refund policies after people contracted for the religious services, which is something a vendor has the prerogative to do, Porter said.
Scaccia portrays Annamalai as a man who in Georgia was targeted by some who disliked his style of Hinduism and who stood to benefit financially from his Atlanta-area temple’s demise.
“In this particular instance, it got so far out of control that it essentially, for no reason at all, forced a criminal situation that had no substance to it, and resulted in a temple going bankrupt that was very financially viable before all this happened,” Scaccia said.
The criminal allegations against Annamalai originated with a few private citizens who filed their complaints with the same police investigator in Gwinnett County, Scaccia said.
Scaccia also said the Hindu Temple of Georgia provided religious services to thousands, with only one charge of practicing medicine without a license being leveled against Annamalai. Gwinnett County’s district attorney dismissed the charge, filed in 2008.
In August 2009, after a lender filed a foreclosure complaint against the temple, the temple filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection, according to court documents. At the time, the temple claimed assets of $9.4 million and liabilities of nearly $15.1 million, documents state.
In an Aug. 27 interview, Annamalai said the Georgia temple was financially solvent and current on its debt payments before the foreclosure.
“We had an excellent credit history, excellent,” Annamalai said.
In December 2009, the Norcross building that had housed the temple was sold out of foreclosure, while furnishings and religious items were sold at an auction in April. Sale of the assets, which had been valued at $4.5 million, brought in about $89,000, according to published reports.
Annamalai still lives in a $1 million home on a country club in Duluth, Ga., and has property and financial holdings in India.
Annamalai and the Hindu Temple and Community Center of High Desert Inc. of Norcross have filed one IRS Form 990 declaring revenue and expenses in 2004. On that form he listed all zeros for the questions related to his group’s finances.
Scaccia said Annamalai is working with accountants to get the missing forms filed with the IRS. Officials with the IRS did not return calls seeking comment.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494 or lsullivan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author