The family and followers of one of India's wealthiest Hindu spiritual leaders are fighting a legal battle over whether he is dead or simply in a deep state of meditation.
His Holiness Shri Ashutosh Maharaj, founder of the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan religious order, with a property estate worth around £100-million (about R1.7-billion), died in January, according to his wife and son.
However, his disciples at his ashram have refused to let the family take his body for cremation because they claim he is still alive. According to his followers, based in the Punjab city of Jalandhar, he went into a deep Samadhi, or meditation, and they have put his body in a freezer at their ashram to preserve it for when he wakes.
Punjabi police initially confirmed his death, but the Punjab High Court later dismissed the police report. Local government officials said it was a spiritual matter and the guru's followers could not be forced to believe he is dead.
Now his wife and son have filed a court application calling for an investigation into his death and for his body to be released for cremation. His son Dilip Jha, 40, claims his late father's followers are refusing to release his body to retain control of his vast financial empire.
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