Tension mounts around Punjab sect campus after court order

The sect has properties and assets running into hundreds of crores and there are reports that the mystery of Ashutosh's death is related to the control of these properties.

Chandigarh:  Tension is building up around the campus of the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (DJJS) sect near Punjab's Jalandhar after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing the state government to perform the last rites of sect guru Ashutosh within 15 days.

Followers of the sect leader are adamant that he (sect leader) is in "deep meditation" and that they will not allow the authorities to remove his body from the deep freezer for performing the last rites as directed by the ourt.

There has been controversy over the death of Ashutosh, who headed the DJJS sect with its headquarters at Nurmahal near Jalandhar, after he was declared "clinically dead" by doctors Jan 29 this year.

The sect management and followers have opposed every move to inspect his body or to remove it. The sect management kept his body in a deep freezer claiming that the sect leader had gone into "samadhi" (deep meditation).

Sect leader Vishalanand said that the sect was going to move a division bench of the high court against the order directing the Punjab government to perform last rites of Ashutosh.

In the last 48 hours, sect followers had put up barricades near their campus but these were removed by police Wednesday.

Senior Punjab Police officers said here that the situation was being monitored closely.

"We don't want the situation to take a violent turn like in sect leader Rampal's case in Hisar in Haryana last month. The Nurmahal sect management has been told this," a senior officer told IANS here.

The matter was taken to the high court by Dalip Kumar Jha, who claimed to be son of Ashutosh alias Mahesh Kumar Jha, April this year, and sought that he be given the mortal remains of his father.

Another petitioner, Puran Singh, who claimed to be the sect leader's former driver, had also approached the high court, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death of Ashutosh.

In its order, the court directed that a committee be constituted under the district magistrate to work out performing of last rites of the sect leader.

The Punjab director general of police (DGP) and chief secretary were asked by the high court to monitor the situation.

The sect has properties and assets running into hundreds of crores and there are reports that the mystery of Ashutosh's death is related to the control of these properties.

IANS