APnv 06/19 0428 Bhadra Released PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A woman who pleaded guilty to tryin

APnv 06/19 0428 Bhadra Released

   PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A woman who pleaded guilty to trying to
kill the personal physician to Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
has  been  released  from federal prison so she can return to her
native Australia and attend her sick parents.

   Ma Shanti Bhadra, 42, who has resumed the name Catherine  Jane
Paul Elsea, was granted an early parole Thursday from the Federal
Correctional  Institute  at  Pleasanton, Calif., authorities told
Portland television station KATU.

   Bhadra, born in Perth, was sentenced July 22,  1986,  in  U.S.
District Court in Portland after pleading guilty to her role in a
plot  to  murder  Swami  Devaraj,  also known as George Alexander
Stowell Wynne-Aubrey Meredith, the doctor and  aide  to  Rajneesh
while  the  guru presided over a commune in the desert of central
Oregon.

   Bhadra also served as vice president of Rajneesh Medical Corp.
and as treasurer of Rajneesh Foundation International  until  she
resigned  Sept. 13, 1985, shortly before fleeing the country with
several other high-ranking Rajneeshees as the commune collapsed.

   She was arrested Oct. 28 in Hausern, West Germany, along  with
Ma  Anand  Sheela, the former personal secretary to the guru, and
Ma Anand Puja, who served as secretary-treasurer of the  Rajneesh
Medical Corp.

   The  three  women  were  extradited  to  Oregon  and  all were
eventually sentenced to prison terms at Pleasanton.

   
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