Supporters of self-styled godman Bhaiyyuji Maharaj mourned as his mortal remains were taken to his native village for his last rites, reported ANI. The 50-year-old Maharaj, whose original name is Uday Singh Deshmukh, allegedly shot himself at his house in Indore on 12 June.
The guru's mortal remains were brought to his ashram to enable his disciples to pay their last respects.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Shrikant Bhartiya, arrived in Indore to pay homage to the departed guru on behalf of the CM.
Union minister Ramdas Athawale also came to pay his respects to Maharaj.
Won't Conclude Anything in Haste, Says Indore Police
An initial probe into the alleged suicide by the spiritual guru has found that he was going through domestic discord but the police said it is probing the incident from various angles and would not draw any hasty conclusions.
"Domestic discord has come to light during the initial investigation into Bhaiyuji Maharaj's suicide, but besides this, we are conducting a detailed probe from other angles also," Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Indore Range, Ajay Sharma told PTI on 13 June.
"We will not jump to any conclusion in a haste," he said.
Another official said the police has seized the CCTV footage, the revolver that Maharaj had allegedly used to shoot himself, his mobile phone and other gadgets from his house, located on the bypass road, where the incident took place.
Bhaiyuji Maharaj's first wife died after suffering a heart attack in 2015. He later married Dr Ayushi Sharma, a native of Shivpuri, in 2017. He has a daughter from his first wife.
Some people close to the saint at his ashram in Indore claimed that his daughter from the first marriage and his second wife did not see eye-to-eye which resulted in unpleasant situations many a times.
The guru obviously remained "tense" because of this, they further claimed.
ADG Sharma said a notepad was found in Bhaiyuji Maharaj’s room in which he had purportedly written, ‘Somebody should be there to handle duties of family, I am leaving, too much stressed out, fed up’.
The spiritual guru's family members claimed that it was his own handwriting but the police will verify it by taking help of experts, the official said.
Maharaj was very popular in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh because of his spiritual and social works.
He was one of the five ‘saints’ to whom the Shivraj Singh government in Madhya Pradesh had granted Minister of State (MoS) rank in April. However, he had refused to accept it, saying “a post holds no importance for a saint”.
The Congress has already demanded a CBI probe into the Maharaj's death.
(With inputs from PTI)
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