While the saints of Bada Akhada have given an ultimatum on Monday to Haridwar police to locate the head seer Mahant Mohan Dass, who had gone missing on Saturday night, police claimed to have found his last location somewhere in Meerut. It is also learnt that a team has left for Meerut.
Notably, he had gone missing from a train while going to Mumbai for medical check-up. Mahant Mohan Dass is national spokesperson of All India Akhada Council, the apex body of the sects of ascetics.
Among those who attended the meeting held at Kankhal were the president of council Srimahant Narendra Giri, Mahamandaleshwar Kailashanand Brahmchari, Srimahant Maheshwar Dass, Swami Harichetanand and Sukhdev Muni.
While the meeting was on the State Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik reached the ashram and assured that the State Government was doing everything to locate the missing saint.
Mahant Narendra Giri said, “With 48 hours having elapsed since the seer went missing, police are still unable to trace him. If they fail to locate him in the next 24 hours the seers would take to the streets.”
He further said, “We are worried as Mahant Mohan Dass was threatened by the followers of the fake sadhus. He did not take it seriously. I have also received the same threat from the followers of Rampal and Asaram soon after the list was released.” He hinted that some property-related matters might be behind the seer’s sudden disappearance.
Meanwhile, police claimed that the missing seer was last located somewhere in Meerut. A team is being sent there to locate him, police said.
SSP Krishna Kumar VK said that they are probing the case from all possible angles. “We are of the view that the property-related matters or the list of the fake sadhus recently released by the Akhada council might be behind the seer’s disappearance. We hope to get leads to unravel the case soon,” he added.
There are several instances of the saints of the ashrams which have huge landed property being targeted by the realtors-backed criminals. There are again cases of some such sadhus allowing lands acquired through donation for commercial use.
Consequently, multi-storey residential facilities have sprung up in the ashram premises. Kankhal is a good example of such transformation, say the observers.