The accused had grabbed around 1 hectare of reserved forest land, the police said. (Representational)
The Uttarakhand forest department has filed a case against Swami Chidananda Saraswati for allegedly grabbing a piece of reserve forest land in Virpur Khurd area in Rishikesh and running a yoga and meditation centre, and a residential school on it.
The case was lodged against the spiritual guru under section 26 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 in compliance with a recent order of the Uttarakhand High Court, Forest Range Officer Mahendra Singh Rawat told news agency PTI.
"Swami Chidananda had grabbed around one hectare of reserved forest land in Virpur Khurd area of the town and was running Muni Chidananda yoga centre, meditation centre and a residential school on it," Mr Rawat said.
However, the forest department took back the land from the spiritual guru on February 10 this year, he added.