For Z security personnel, this dead saint is 'alive'

Even in death, Ashutosh Maharaj, an influential and renowned saint in Punjab, is being guarded by several armed personnel as part of the Z category security he was accorded when he was alive.

Staunch devotees of the sect Maharaj headed maintain that their guru is merely in “deep meditation” and refuse to accept that he is dead. They believe that Maharaj will one day rise from the “samadhi”.

Controversy had engulfed the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan sect in Punjab’s Jalandhar district ever since doctors of the Apollo Hospital in Ludhiana declared that Maharaj died of natural causes on January 28.

Even after six months, around 25 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force and the Punjab Police are still in attendance on the basis of threat perception, sources said.
In the hope that the saint would “come to life”, devotees are safely preserving his body within the sect premises.

When Maharaj was alive, security guards would accompany him when he travelled for religious events.

But now, there movement is limited to in and around the sect premises, to guard the mortal remains of the saint that devotees believe is a phase of meditation. Maharaj had once enjoyed Z plus security cover after a confrontation with the Sikh community years ago.

Later, his security cover was trimmed down to Z category cover.