During the resumed hearing of the petition of Dalip Kumar Jha, a Bihar resident who claims to be the son of clinically dead Ashutosh Maharaj, spiritual head of Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan of Nurmahal (Jalandhar), the latter’s brother-in-law placed on record an affidavit regarding Ashutosh’s marital status.
Jha had moved the high court in April, seeking the release of the mortal remains of his ‘father’ to him for performing the last rites and also a probe to ascertain the real cause of the spiritual head’s “suspicious death”.
The affidavit was filed by Jepan Kumar, who claimed to be Ashutosh’s brother-in-law. He submitted that Ashutosh married his sister Navedi Devi on March 15, 1968.
After taking the affidavit on record, the court asked Jha to produce more documents to prove his relationship with Ashutosh.
On January 29, sansthan doctors had declared Ashutosh Maharaj alias Mahesh Kumar Jha clinically dead, after which the sansthan management had kept the body inside a deep freezer, saying that the spiritual head had gone into ‘samadhi’ (state of deep meditation).
The case will come up for hearing on September 29.
