BHOPAL: The war among Hindu seers over the poll campaigning for former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh in the Lok Sabha elections is not yet over. On Friday, Bhopal-based seer Swami Bairagyanand Giri aka Mirchi Baba has lodged a case against Mahant Narendra Giri, the head of Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad (the governing body of the 13 Akharas) alleging that latter and followers are threatening to kill him if he didn’t take “samadhi” (entombment).
The Ayodhya Nagar police station in Bhopal has lodged a case under Section 507 criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of IPC against Narendra Giri and his followers. “Since the declaration of the poll results on May 23, Bairagyanand Giri is receiving anonymous calls from several unknown phone numbers in which he is being abused and threatened. The seer suspects that Mahant Narendra Giri and his followers are behind this. My client is being threatened to take Samadhi or else he would be shot dead, thus pushing him to the brink of suicide,” the Bhopal based seer’s advocate Syed Majid Ali told The Sunday Standard.
Ali also questioned his client’s expulsion from Niranjani Akhara, particularly when no action was taken against another seer Swami Anand Giri despite being arrested in Australia last month for the alleged sexual assault on two followers. Importantly, Bairagyanand Giri was among the seers who campaigned for Digvijaya against BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal. The seer had performed a Mirchi Yajna for Digvijaya’s polls triumph and taken a vow to take Samadhi (entombment) if the Congress candidate lost to Pragya Thakur.
Trouble began once Pragya Thakur defeated her Congress rival by over 3.64 lakh votes. On June 14, the seer had moved an application before the Bhopal district administration to allow him to take Bramhleen Samadhi at 2.11 pm on June 16. However, the district collector rejected his request, stating that there was no such provision in the law and instead wrote to the Bhopal district police to ensure proper security for the seer. Also, on May 24, the Niranjani Akhara expelled Bairagyanand Giri for performing yajna and campaigning for the poll success of Digvijay. The decision was ratified by Narendra Giri-led Parishad later.