CBI takes over probe into Akhara head Narendra Giri’s death case

NEW DELHI : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday began a probe in the case registered under the IPC Section 306 (abetment to suicide) in connection with influential Hindu seer Narendra Giri’s death. CBI took over the case on Thursday.

Giri, who headed the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the top body of the country’s Hindu monastic orders, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his room in the Baghambari Gaddi Math in Prayagraj on Monday. Giri was also the mahant (chief priest) of the Bade Hanuman Temple in Prayagraj.

A CBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Delhi unit of the agency’s special crime branch registered the case as soon as it took over the probe following a Central government notification in this regard.

Officials familiar with the matter said CBI will recreate the crime scene and question people who worked closely with the seer.

On Thursday, a five-member CBI team visited Prayagraj to collect the first information report (FIR) and other details related to the case from an 18-member Special Investigation Team of the state police that was earlier constituted to probe the death.

The state government late on Wednesday night recommended a CBI probe into the death on the directions of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The SIT was investigating the allegations of harassment the seer made in his purported suicide note, naming his disciples Anand Giri, Aadya Tiwari, and the latte’s son, Sandeep Tiwari. The three have been arrested in the case.

Rohit Kumar Singh contributed to this story.