High Court orders preservation of Saint's dead body in freeze for 3-years

The controversy over the burial of the body of a Godman declared “clinically dead” by doctors over 3-years ago finally ended today. The clinically dead saint will be preserved, the Punjab and Haryana high court in Chandigarh ruled on Wednesday.

The court allowed the preservation of the body of Ashutosh Maharaj, the head of Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (DJJS)- a Jalandhar based sect with massive following across the country- who died in January 2014. But his followers said the Maharaj had gone in deep meditation and will come out of it one day. Accordingly, his body was preserved ceremoniously in a deep freezer.

The sect had challenged the order of a single Bench of the high court which had ordered his cremation after doctors declared him clinically dead. The order was set aside today. The High court division bench also ordered that the body will be periodically inspection by a medical team for which the sect has been asked to deposit Rs 50 lakh as costs. With the High court preferring to enter the arena of belief, followers of the saint are elated.

Even after his “death,” Ashutosh Maharaj was guarded by several armed personnel as part of the Z category security which he given when he was alive. That was on the belief that he would “rise” one day from his “samadhi.”

Two months after the death of the Maharaja, two petitions were moved in the High court. One of the petitioner was Dalip Kumar Jha, a resident of Bihar, who claimed he was the biological son of the Saint. He sought a DNA test to establish his claim, besides the release of the mortal remains of his “father” for performing the last rites. The high court rejected his plea today asking him to file a separate writ petition.

The controversy over the death of the saint is also shrouded in mystery of inheritance of the legacy and assets left behind. In another petitioner before the court by the saints former driver Puran Singh, a CBI probe into the saints “mysterious” death was sought.