A hoarding featuring an image of godman Ashutosh Maharaj outside the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan on the outskirts of Jalandhar. (Agence France-Presse)
The police has beefed up security and is keeping a close eye on an ashram near Jalandhar in Punjab, where there is tension after the High Court ordered that the body of the guru who headed the ashram be cremated within 15 days.
The body of Ashutosh Maharaj has been lying in a freezer since January 29 this year, when doctors said that he was "clinically dead." His followers insist that their guru is not dead but in deep meditation or "samadhi" and have refused to cremate him.
No one has reportedly been allowed to examine the body.
Ashutosh Maharaj headed the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan sect headquartered at Nurmahal near Jalandhar; the sect allegedly has property and assets running into hundreds of crores.
Earlier this week, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Punjab government to conduct the last rites of the self-styled godman within 15 days. It made the order on a petition filed in April by a man called Dilip Kumar, who claims to be Ashutosh Maharaj's son and has sought custody of his body to perform last rites.
Punjab Police chief Sumedh Singh Saini met Maharaj's followers yesterday to determine how to implement the court's order. The court has ordered the formation of a committee of senior officers to oversee law and order during the process.
The state police says it does not want to take chances and will draw its lessons from the recent two-week stand-off at an ashram in neighbouring Haryana, where the self-styled godman Rampal had sequestered himself along with a private army and many followers to evade arrest.
Rampal's followers had clashed with the police, which had to storm the 12-acre ashram to arrest the controversial guru. Five women and an infant died during the stand off.