Houston-area Hindu temple sued over alleged branding of 11-year-old boy – Houston Public Media

Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media

A Houston-area Hindu temple has been sued by a man who claims his 11-year-old son was branded with a hot iron rod during a 2023 religious ceremony that included about 100 people.

Fort Bend County resident Vijay Cheruvu is seeking more than $1 million in damages in the lawsuit filed this week against the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land and its parent organization, Jeeyar Educational Trust (JET) USA, Inc. Cheruvu’s attorney, Brant Stogner, said the boy was branded in both shoulders, resulting in extreme pain and permanent disfigurement, and subsequently developed an infection as a result of the branding.

The boy attended the ceremony with his mother and was branded against his will and without the knowledge or consent of his father, according to Stogner, who said branding, tattooing or scarring a child is illegal in Texas even with parental consent.

Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner Law Firm

“This is happening basically in our backyard over here, so that’s the reason we filed the lawsuit,” Stogner said. “We want to make sure our community is aware of this and want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anybody else, anybody else’s child or any child at all.”

A man who answered the phone Thursday at Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple, located at 10098 Synott Rd. in Sugar Land, said, “We don’t have much information on this,” before abruptly ending the call. The temple did not immediately respond to a subsequent email seeking comment, and JET USA did not immediately respond to a voicemail or email seeking comment. Attorneys for the organizations were not listed Thursday in the online court record for the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Fort Bend County.

Stogner said the mother of the boy who allegedly was branded on temple property last August, who is divorced from his father, had a criminal complaint made against her but charges were not accepted by a grand jury. The mother is not named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit, which accuses Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple and JET USA of negligence, gross negligence and premises liability while seeking damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish and past and future medical and pharmaceutical expenses, among other damages.

Based on preliminary investigation, Stogner said nearly 100 adults and at least three children were branded during the ceremony. The boy’s mother was not among those who were branded, according to Stogner, who said Cheruvu’s son appears to have been branded with a conch-like symbol on one shoulder and the image of a Hindu god on the other shoulder.

Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner Law Firm

“He feels betrayed by those involved, by those who allowed this to happen to him and those who stood by and watched while this happened to him,” Stogner said. “So we’re talking about an 11-year-old boy who’s extremely confused, who’s extremely traumatized by this whole incident.”

Stogner said research by his law firm, Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, has revealed that branding ceremonies such as the one that allegedly occurred southwest of Houston last summer are uncommon in Hinduism.

“Everybody we’ve ever spoken with who’s a practicing Hindu, they’ve never heard of this,” Stogner said. “We’ve been told that it may happen in some small villages in India, but this does not happen in India proper, this does not happen at any Hindu temples here in the United States.

“What we think is this is more of a traveling guru type under the guise of Hinduism, maybe even under the umbrella of it, but a sub-sect,” he added. “This particular guru brands people to initiate them really into him, rather than into the faith.”