Narianiah's accusations against Leadbeater


The original accusations made by Narianiah were extemely severe. He claimed to have witnessed an act of sodomy by Leadbeater on his son Krishnamurty. During trial, he was asked by Mrs. Besant, who defended Leadbeater, to answer three questions under oath:
(1) when exactly, date and time, and where exactly was the alleged act perpetrated,

(2) why didn't he intervene to defend his son,

(3) why had he waited solong before filing a complaint.

Narianiah replied that the act took place during the second week of April 1910, in the octogon bungalow when the child was drinking warm milk before a bicycle ride. Mra van Hook and Dr. Mary Rocke (physician and social worker in Adyar) testified that both were present daily in the bungalow from 5:30 a.m. from October 1909 till the end of April 1910 and that they had seen nothing improper. On advise of council, Narianiah changed his accusations from sodomy to "improper acts against nature", a claim he later explained to be "washing oneself between the legs", which was contrary to brahman custom.

The jugement was rendered on April 15, 1913 returning the custody of the children to their father as from May 26 of the same year. Leadbeater reported the issue of the trial in a letter dated April 19, 1913 to Lady Emily Lutyens. As the children officially lived in India, they were under the jurisdiction of the King-Emperor of Inda. The opinion of the court was that Mrs. Besant had broken the agreement with Narianiah, but that the latter had atempted to inluence the court by his complaint against Leadbeater, and that he had parjured himself by repeating the 1906 accusations against Leadbeater. However the judge addressed Narianiah sternly and told him that no decent father should hide such offense against a son so long and would remained associated with such a criminal from April 1910 till 1912. He sentenced Narianiah to pay for the tribunal expenses and ended his address with the following words:
If the plaintif had believed that a disgusting crime had been committed against his son or even if he believed that the person of his son had been treated in an incent manner, as he claimes today, and that such acts had been committed by a man considered to be a pariah, according to Indian customs, it is very difficult to believe that he would not return home in tears and complained to his family.
Mrs. Besant obtained a 10 days stay of execution of the sentence to appeal. The appellate Court rendered its verdict on October 29 of the same year. The verdict of the lower court was maintained, but a new stay of execution was obtained to file further appeal. Mrs. Besant finally won her trial on May 5th, 1914, Leadbeater was completely cleared from any improper conduct towards Krishnamurti.

Leadbeater was annoyed the Mail  newspaper in Madras and the Times  of London had reported that the judge had caracterised him as an immoral person, although the judge has only caracterised his opinions. He complained about this in a letter to Lady Emily Lutyens dated May 14, 1914. The Mail  published an nice article of apology, and the Times   printed on June 2nd, a letter from Mrs. Besant pointing out the error in the report on the trial. She wrote:
Everyone who knows Mr. Leadbeater, knows that his conduct is impeccable, whatever are his academic opinions. His opinion is based on his desire to protect certain women from the depravation that mark them for life, when men live their lives in full impunity.