Not just suicide-murder theory, UP mahant’s death leaves more questions unanswered

The death of a prominent person, especially when he is a Mahant, the head priest of a renowned mutt and a revered ‘sant’, causes tremendous shock and anguish to the faithful. And when the death is due to an alleged suicide, it causes disbelief. To top it off, when a ‘suicide note’ emerges, in which the Hindu pontiff, a spiritual guide to millions who revered him as ‘Swamiji’, allegedly claims that he resorted to this rash act because he was blackmailed with a morphed video showing him in a compromising position with a woman, his followers are both traumatised and outraged.

In a land ruled by a chief minister who incidentally is also a mahant himself, and with holy cities like Varanasi, Ayodhya and Allahabad, where the number of sants (saints) runs into tens of thousands in each, and where numerous akharas abound, the jolt to the Hindu community over the alleged suicide of Baghambari Mutt Mahant Narendra Giri is seen to be believed. It is no less than the shock that the orthodox Tamil community experienced during the arrest of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jeyendra Saraswati in the Sankararaman murder case.

Mahant Narendra Giri was no ordinary seer

Mahant Narendra Giri, 72, was reportedly found hanging in his room of the Prayagraj (Allahabad)-based mutt in Uttar Pradesh, one of the two religious capitals of Hinduism in north India. Giri was no ordinary sant. He was the president of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, an all-India outfit of similar akharas or Hindu monasteries-cum-ashrams of sants and sadhus, each of which usually centers around a tall religious leader.

Giri was a cult figure in the sant samaj, the community of Hindu seers. He also wielded enormous political clout—both the ruling chief ministers as well as opposition leaders, whether they believed in ‘saffron’ or secular ideology, were his ardent devotes. Seeking his blessings always remained a prerogative for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his successor Yogi Adityanath. Both rushed to pay their last respects to the departed guru.

Also read: ‘Morphed photo with woman’: Note emerges on seer Narendra Giri’s death

The administration acted with alacrity. The same day they filed an FIR calling it a suicide. While taking possession of the body of the mahant, they also recovered what they claimed was a suicide note. Acting on the basis of what Mahant Narendra Giri had allegedly written in it, the police arrested his deputy and disciple Mahant Anand Giri, not on murder charges, but for abetment to suicide. The head priest of a Hanuman Mandir (a prominent spot for pilgrims) Adaya Tiwari and his son Sandeep Tiwari, named in the suicide note, were also arrested.

Conspiracy theories – suicide or murder?

Giri’s mysterious death triggered wide speculation and conspiracy theories – both a suicide theory as well as a murder theory started making rounds, even before the postmortem report, forensic report and the footage from the CC TV outside the mahant’s room were in place. While the police themselves had floated the suicide theory by naming the death as suicide in the FIR, an assorted array of people came up with a murder theory. The state’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya himself said that he had met the mahant only a few days back and he was not in a distressed state of mind, alluding thereby that it was not a case of suicide. BJP MP from Prayagraj, Rita Bahuguna Joshi also informed the media that it was a case of murder as the mahant was a strong character who would not commit suicide. Former Union minister Chinmayanad and BJP MP Pragya Thakur also demanded a CBI probe into the death by asserting that it was a case of murder.

From the opposition camp, the Samajwadi Party called for a court-monitored inquiry. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut called the suicide theory “absurd”. Congress leader and former minister in Madhya Pradesh Sajjan Singh Verma alleged that the mahant was “murdered” at the behest of a few “central leaders,” without, however, naming them.

In fact, the murder theory first came from Anand Giri himself who said before his arrest that a few people close to the senior mahant, who had driven a wedge between him and Narendra Giri, had killed him to grab property. This fuelled theories Anand Giri was probably being made a scapegoat. But, the speculators didn’t see that Anand gave his account without any clinching evidence. In fact, none of the murder theorists could offer any hard evidence. So it all remained in the realm of speculation.

Among those speculating on murder were also those who described the suicide theory a part of a conspiracy hatched by the administration and the political powers that be. They drew this conclusion probably because in their opinion the plot thickened when the police leaked the suicide note in a selective manner. They also questioned the authenticity of the suicide note and hinted that it was a planted one.

Discrepancies in suicide note

The suicide note in fact raises some doubts. People who saw it told The Federal that it was in different handwritings, different pens had been used and at many places there are deletions and indecipherable writing. Niranjan Akhara chief Ravindra Puri told a TV channel that Narendra Giri had head injury and the suicide note was not written by him. Maybe, the Mahant had just learnt to write and prepared it on different occasions. We will have to wait for the results of the forensic examination.

But then the police had also reportedly found a recorded video statement of Narendra Giri before suicide, according to an India Today report. A video statement is admissible as evidence in a court after due forensic verification. Police has also found the footage from a CCTV outside the room where Mahant Narendra Giri was found dead. Police claimed that they were examining the content. Not revealing the video statement and the CCTV footage was a major source of speculation.

The Ayodhya angle

In Ayodhya proper, the Nirmohi Akhara was always at loggerheads with the VHP and RSS. They took the position that the construction of the Ram Temple should be left to the sants. It is to be noted that the Nirmohi Akhara is a constituent of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, headed by Giri, and the mahant had earlier supported the position of the akhara. Some have speculated that this could be the reason why the mahant was bumped off.

But such a position is far-fetched because neither the mahant nor the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad is a stumbling block now for the temple building as the Supreme Court has entrusted the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust (floated by the Centre as per the apex court direction) with the job. With the matter settled, neither the Mahant nor the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad had opposed the SC directive. Rather, BJP leaders had patched up with the mahant and were being courted by him now. Yogi accorded him a due role as the key player in Kumbh Mela and Magh Mela. The new honeymoon was thriving well and there was no reason for the powers that be for eliminating him. Rather, the infighting within the akhara appears to be at the root of this mysterious death, be it suicide or murder.

The murky background

Trouble had been brewing between Narendra Giri and Anand Giri, 38, for quite some time over the flashy lifestyle of the latter, and his alleged misappropriation of the akhara properties. And things reached a breaking point. A video was reportedly making rounds in which Narendra Giri was accusing Anand Giri of trying to grab the Brahmachari Kuti in the upmarket real estate area of Noida. Some community elders embarked upon troubleshooting and a written agreement was reportedly reached between Narendra Giri and Anand Giri on May 26, 2021 under the auspices of mediators including SP and BJP leaders Sushil Mishra (BJP), Indu Prakash Mishra (SP) and OP Pandey (Assistant Superintendent of Police in Moradabad). But the mediators obviously did not succeed. Instead of the dispute coming to an end, the life of the man itself had come to a sordid end.

Sadly, the life of the distinguished Hindu dignitary did not come to a dignified end no matter whether it was a case of suicide or murder. The investigation is on and the rival sides are still active and the truth is bound to come out. But the sordid episode has cast aspersions on the whole of Sant Samaj. The saffron establishment should take it seriously. Veteran Congress leader Shyam Krishna Pandey told The Federal that the government should step in and take over the properties of such mutts with sharp internal disputes.

Also read: Suicide or murder? Prayagraj seer’s death kicks off a storm in Uttar Pradesh

They should strictly abide by the law. SR Darapuri, a former Superintendent of Police, told The Federal, “The post mortem report should be handed over to the investigating officer, but it is being said that it will be sent to the chief minister in a sealed envelope. How can the rule of law be violated in this manner? Nothing will come out of the investigation because the mutts are powerful and elections are close. If the investigation could be monitored by the Allahabad High Court, maybe we could get some results.” The demand is gaining force among wider sections of Hindus too.

Need for an overhaul of laws governing religious institutions

Many of these mutts come under the Indian Trusts Act 1882 or Charitable Endowments Act 1951 and in some states like Tamil Nadu under the HR & CE Act or its state-level parallels similar to Wakf Board Acts and the Trust Act under which most of the Church properties fall which need a thorough overhaul. These laws do not provide for democratic management of these supposedly collective properties of the respective communities.

The authoritarian ethos of the Hindu orthodoxy, the skewed power relations within these institutions, the distorted inter-personal relations in them that are anything but democratic despite the penetration of modernity, the increasing cost of religion and huge inflows of funds raised for religious services, massive misappropriation of public properties under their possession, and sex scandals due to the religiously dictated celibacy etc., have become endemic problems in the religious establishments of all religious communities. Hopefully, a respected mahant’s sordid end would give enough strength to the government to wield a big broom.