2 02-26-88 11:48 aps New group wants to clear guru's name By PETER GILLINS PORTLAND, Ore.

   2 02-26-88 11:48 aps

   New group wants to clear guru's name By PETER GILLINS

   PORTLAND,  Ore.  (UPI) - Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who once
drove around the Oregon desert in Rolls Royces, now  lives  as  a
virtual  prisoner  in  India  due  to  his  guilty plea to felony
charges of violating  U.S.  immigration  laws,  his  lawyer  said
Friday.

   Philip  Toelkes,  also known as Swami Prem Niren, said because
of pressure from the Reagan administration, Rajneesh is unable to
leave India and his followers have  trouble  obtaining  visas  to
visit him at his ashram in Poona.

   Toelkes  told  a  news  conference  he is forming a non-profit
foundation in California called the  Institute  for  Justice  and
Human Rights which will attempt to clear the guru's name and have
the  guilty  plea  set aside so Rajneesh can travel freely around
the world and perhaps return to the United States.

   However, Toelkes offered no specifics on how he might persuade
the federal courts to undo Rajneesh's plea, which he entered in a
hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Edward Leavy in November
1985.

   Rajneesh, a mystic who preached free love, admitted being part
of a conspiracy to arrange sham marriages  so  that  his  foreign
followers  could  evade  U.S.  immigration laws and settle on his
now-defunct commune at a cattle ranch in central Oregon.

   Rajneesh paid a $400,000 fine and was placed on probabtion for
five years on condition that he leave the United States.

   Toelkes said he will take "appropriate legal steps" after  the
Reagan  Administration  leaves  office next year to have the plea
set aside.

   "It wasn't a guilty plea, it was a plea arrangement," he said.

   The lawyer  said  Rajneesh  pleaded  guilty  only  because  he
"feared  for  his  life"  at  the hands of the Justice Department
which "which illegally investigated Bhagwan for five years  (and)
wrongfully  obtained  a  federal indictment against Bhagwan which
was totally unsupported by any evidence of criminal activity.":

   Toelkes said he advised Rajneesh to enter into a plea  bargain
on  the  belief that once the guru had left the United States, he
would be left in peace.

   "I was wrong," he said. "Bhagwan is  being  held  prisoner  in
India by the U.S. government."

   He  charged  that U.S. authorities pressured other governments
around the world to deny Rajneesh entrance visas on  the  grounds
he is a convicted felon.  Toelkes also said the Indian government
refused  to  grant  visas  to  the guru's followers so they could
visit him at his current ashram in Poona.

   "Even the press that want to go and interview  him  have  been
denied visas," the lawyer said.

   U.S.  Attorney  Charles Turner, who prosecuted Rajneesh, could
not be reached for comment.  But he responded to similar  charges
by Toelkes last fall, calling them ridiculous.

   Turner  said Toelkes should give up his license as a lawyer if
he advised  Rajneesh  to  enter  a  plea  that  he  believed  was
incorrect.

   The  U.S.  attorney  also  noted  that  more  than a dozen top
leaders of the guru's commune had been convicted of  crimes  that
occurred while the group was living in Oregon.