Five years on, Nurmahal dera head Ashutosh continues to be in freezer
TWISTS AND TURNS
to check for decomposition.
The panel comprises Dr Ajay Goyal from anatomy and Dr Gautam Vishvash from forensic medicine departments (both from the Dayanand Medical College (DMC) Ludhiana) and the Jalandhar civil surgeon. The last inspection was done in December 2018.
The DJJS has also tasked its own team, including a few specialists from Delhi, to check the body every fortnight, claimed dera sources.
WHO WAS ASHUTOSH MAHARAJ?
Originally named Mahesh Jha, Ashutosh Maharaj was born in 1946 at Nakhlor village in Darbanga district of Bihar, as per his passport.
After leaving his wife and son, around 18 months after marriage, Ashutosh became a disciple of Satpal Maharaj, founder of Manav Uthhaan Sewa Samiti (MUSS). He started his own sect in 1983.
Initially, he organised programmes in villages, before purchased a 16-marla house in Nurmahal city and forming the DJJS, which was registered in 1991 with New Delhi as headquarters. Today, the DJJS has a 40-acre campus on the Jalandhar-nakodar road and more than 100 centres in the country.
SUCCESSION WAR BEHIND PRESERVING BODY?
Tongues started wagging hours after the death on a possible explanation for the dera deciding to preserve the body. Initially, followers and politicians were sent messages announcing his death; the messages adding that information on the last rites would follow. Within hours, the dera contradicted itself, claiming that Ashutosh was ‘clinically dead’, and was in ‘samadhi’ (deep meditation). It was also claimed that he would be normal ‘very soon’. This claim coincided with the arrival of DJJS men from Delhi.
In hushed voices, dera insiders claim that a war of succession over dera property, valued at crores and spread across the country, dictated this move. However, there is no authentication. The DJJS, whose properties were in the name of the trust till Ashutosh was alive, has never seen any issue on who will run the show. The management from Delhi, however, has increased say in affairs. An annual show of the DJJS, held on each Guru Purnima Puja, continues to witness rush of followers. Political leaders have decreased presence.
The past five years has also seen the case play out in court. A 2014 order of a single-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court on cremating the body was overturned by a division bench that on July 5, 2017, also allowed preserving his body.
A Bihar native, Dalip Jha, had moved court seeking permission for the last rites of Ashutosh, claiming that the DJJS head was his father.
NO CHANGE IN BODY: CIVIL SURGEON
Jalandhar civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Kumar Bugga said, “There are no signs of decomposition Immediately after Ashutosh’s death, the dera authorities decided to preserve his body. Here’s a timeline of the case that has also played out in court.
2014
January 29
Ashutosh is clinically dead
January 30
Dera claimed that Ashutosh had taken ‘Samadhi’. Security beefed up at dera
January 31
Dera claims that the body is stable and is not decomposing
April
A petition came up at the Punjab and Haryana HC relating to Ashutosh death in which a Bihar native Dalip Kumar Jha
of the body. A bacteria culture test on the body has come out negative.”
When asked specifically if any
claimed he was his biological son. He sought the release of his mortal remains for performing his last rites
December 1
The single-judge bench told the state government to perform the last rites within 15 days. A division bench later stayed this order
July 5, 2017
Setting aside the 2014 order of a single-judge bench of the court for Ashutosh Maharaj’s cremation, the Punjab and Haryana high court allowed the preserving of his body.
chemical had been injected or used to preserve the body, he added nothing of this sort had been done.