Osho will: HC raps police for slow probe

MUMBAI: Hitting out at the Pune police’s lackadaisical approach in the ‘fake’ will case of spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh, the Bombay high court on Wednesday directed

MUMBAI: Hitting out at the Pune police’s lackadaisical approach in the ‘fake’ will case of spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh, the Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the deputy commissioner of police to supervise the investigation in the matter.

HT Image

A division bench of justices Naresh Patil and Prakash Naik, was hearing a petition filed by one of Osho’s disciples — Yogesh Thakkar. The court was irked to find that the Koregaon police had still not obtained the handwriting expert’s report on the FIR registered on December 8, 2013 by Thakkar who alleged that the will, which surfaced 23 years after the spiritual guru’s death, was fake.

The FIR also alleged that the six beneficiaries — Michael Byrne, D’Arcy Byrne, Philip Toelkes, Dr John Andrews, Mukesh Sarda and Llaus Steeg — named in the will were siphoning off money from Osho International Foundation in Mumbai, Zurich and Switzerland.

Thakkar claimed that the accused had allegedly transferred money from Osho International Foundation to private companies owned by them.

He alleged that they forged the will to stake claim to the intellectual property rights.