Chandra Bhoga: Melbourne Yoga teacher jailed for sexually assaulting 15yo girl during class
A yoga teacher has been jailed for his sickening acts after he brazenly sexually assaulted a teen during class while pretending to help with her breathing.
A yoga teacher has been jailed for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl during class also attended by her mother.
Chandra Bhoga, 47, was sentenced to four years jail with 19 months non-parole in the County Court of Victoria on Friday.
He committed his sickening acts during an early-morning yoga class at his Tarneit home while pretending to help the teen with her breathing.
He pleaded guilty to two rolled-up counts of sexual assault in 2018.
The teen told him she was struggling to breathe as she had a cold, and Bhoga said he would help.
He then put his hands under her bra and inside her underwear and sexually assaulted her.
He also pulled her hand towards his genitals but she resisted.
The teen went to school that day and cried as she told two friends what had happened.
Her mother told the court that her daughter had lost “sleep and serenity”, trust and confidence, and had trouble building relationships since Bhoga’s sickening assault.
Bhoga is married to a doctor and has two children, including a nine-year-old son with autism.
He was born in India and moved to Australia in 2005 at the age of 32.
He has a Bachelor of Science and an MBA in systems and marketing and worked in his own IT and systems intelligence business, teaching yoga on the side, before being jailed.
Judge Frank Gucciardo said Bhoga had abused his position as a yoga teacher and was motivated by “self-gratification”.
“This offence … was committed in a brazen manner, in the presence of the child’s mother, under the pretence of a health practice, in a manner which was facilitated by the trust reposed in you by both as a teacher and practitioner which you breached,” he said.
Bhoga mentored disadvantaged students through charity the Smith Family between 2008 and 2020.