12/22/97 - 1410

LA Temple Sunday Feast Assault

USA (VNN) - VNN has received reports of an altercation between devotees at the sunday feast on 12/21/97 in the Los Angeles ISKCON temple. Based on preliminary eyewitness accounts Bhakta Ian was assaulted by resident temple devotees. Apparently Bhakta Ian was passing out a paper "Phalgun Krishna Panchami" (a poem by Srila Prabhupada) and made some comments regarding the "poison controversy" to other devotees. This allegedly resulted in Bhagavat Kripa das attacking Bhakta Ian, who was bleeding after the attack. Many Sunday feast guests witnessed the assault as well as Bhakta Ian's children. VNN will follow up on this story with statements from both parties.