Searching for Sheela, which dropped last week on Netflix, is a medley of parties, events, talks, and panel discussions. At all of these happenings, curious eyes and tongues, some famous too, tend to pose the same set of questions to Ma Anand Sheela, 71. Did she attempt murder and plan a bio terror attack in Oregon in 1984 in order to incapacitate the voting population of The Dalles, Oregon, so that candidates from the commune she represented would win the Wasco County Elections? And why wasn’t she furious at her mentor, soulmate and religious leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later known as Osho, after he publicly blamed and rejected her, even calling her a “prostitute”? 

The Baroda-born Sheela Ambalal Patel, who is now a Swiss resident, was the chief spokesperson for the Rajneesh spiritual movement, following the leader from India to the US and playing a critical role as the commune’s power centre and his personal secretary from 1981 to 1985. In 1986, Sheela was tried for attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bio terror attack and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, and paroled after a year following good behaviour.