he followers of a Jalandhar-based spiritual guru, Ashutosh Maharaj have put his body in a freezer to "protect it" until he returns from his "samadhi" (deep meditation). The body was kept in the freezer a week after doctors declared the guru to be "clinically dead". His followers refuse to accept the medical judgement, saying that their guru had taken similar long samadhis in the last 12 years. They argue that by putting him in the freezer they are trying to replicate the sub-zero conditions in the Himalayas, where sadhus take samadhis and their followers protect their bodies. They refuse to reply to media queries saying that the guru himself will answer all questions. The guru has been in this state of "deep meditation" since 29 January at Nurmahal in Punjab's Jalandhar district.

The guru's establishment, Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (DJJS) is headquartered at Nurmahal. The DJJS claims it has 6 crore followers drawn from all religions, with 52 lakh in Punjab alone.

However, Ashutosh Maharaj's detractors have declared the samadhi to be a sham. A person claiming to be Ashutosh Maharaj's driver has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court saying that the DJJS is keeping the Maharaj captive to claim his property worth Rs 1,000 cr. The Punjab government filed an affidavit saying that he was clinically dead and not under detention.

Another person, Dilip Jha, claiming to be Ashutosh Maharaj's son has expressed his wish to perform the last rites of the guru. Jha claims he was from Madhubani in Bihar where Ashutosh Maharaj was born and brought up. However, the DJJS says that the sanyasi does not have a past.

Ashutosh Maharaj shifted to Punjab in 1983 when Khalistani terrorism was at its peak. He carried out his spiritual work in the border areas to fight anti-national activities. He went door-to-door sharing what he called brahmagyan (spiritual knowledge) to prevent people from taking to violence. Sources in the DJJS say their guru had met Sikh militant leader Bhindranwale in the Golden Temple to try to persuade him to give up militancy. Ashutosh Maharaj attracted the ire of a section of hardline Sikhs who claimed that the guru was misquoting from the Guru Granth Sahib. The DJJS had offered all its literature to the SGPC for scrutiny.

His followers say that even now the people who are questioning the guru's death are "motivated by anti-national forces" to grab his spiritual establishment.