Kalki Bhagawan (as Vijay Kumar Naidu), also known as Sri Bhagavan, is a self-styled Indian godman, cult leader, businessman, and a real estate investor. A former clerk in the LIC, he claims to be an incarnation of God (the Kalki Avatar). He is the founder of ‘Oneness’ / ‘Ekam’ cult and White Lotus Conglomerate.
Vijay kumar encourages his followers to worship him as God; and claims to be a divine Avatar capable of performing miracles. He has also claimed to be a Messiah destined to give spiritual enlightenment to mankind. In 1989, he launched a New Religious Movement called Oneness, and prophesied to inaugurate a spiritual golden age in the world in the year 2012. When no such event occurred on 21st December 2012, disappointed followers left the cult and it was handed over to his son NKV Krishna (“Krishnaji”) and daughter-in-law Preetha Krishna (“Preethaji”). They have rebranded it under different names like ‘Ekam’, ‘pkconsciousness’, and ‘O&O Academy’.
Alongside Ekam, Kalki and his family also own the White Lotus Conglomerate. It is a multimillion dollar group of companies with interests in real estate, mining, entertainment, sport, agriculture, education, finance and manufacturing. Many of these are shell companies and exist only as mailing addresses. Prominent Acharyas in the former Oneness cult like Anandagiri and Samadarshini sit on the boards of these companies.
In 2002, social activist Viswanath Swami filed a complaint with the Indian Income-Tax Department, alleging that Kalki Bhagavan had floated multiple trusts for rural development and obtained tax exemption for funds collected by these trusts. Swami also alleged that Kalki Bhagavan was using these funds to help setup multiple corporations for his son NKV Krishna, rather than using the money for the stated purpose.
In 2019, Indian law enforcement agencies raided Kalki Bhagavan’s properties and confiscated unaccounted assets worth US$67 Million. The Enforcement Directorate attached 900 acres of land belonging to his ashram and registered a case against him under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.