Narendra Giri death: Accused disciple globe-trotting sadhu once held in Oz for sexual harassment

HARIDWAR: At 15, Anand Giri decided to “renounce” worldly pleasures and turn into a sanyasi. His search for a guru to give him ‘deeksha’ (blessings) as he embarked on his spiritual journey brought him to Haridwar where he met Narendra Giri, a mahant of Niranjani akhara, in 2000.
Over the years, Anand, a scholar of Vedas and Sanskrit from Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, came to be known as Giri’s closest disciple.But in 2020, the guru-shishya duo parted ways following years of disagreements and a bitter dispute over mutt property.
On Monday, Anand was arrested after Giri, the head of the influential Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, was found hanging in UP’s Baghambari mutt — that belongs to Niranjani akhara — with a suicide note alleging blackmail by his former disciple and two others. Anand, now 35, has been booked for abetment of suicide.
“Their relationship had turned bitter in the last decade, leading Giri to expel Anand from the Baghambari mutt last year. But after Anand offered a public apology and others intervened, he was reinstated,” said a seer in Haridwar.
As Giri rose in stature in the past decade — from mahant to chief of the Akhara Parishad, the apex body of 13 akharas in India, in 2016 — so did his disciple. Often, he was seen riding luxury cars. Anand’s trips abroad, too, became frequent in the past decade. He would fly business class.
In one such trip to Australia in 2018, Anand was arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a woman he was teaching yoga to. Last year, a photo of Anand circulated online in which he was flying business class and “drinking”. He later said it was apple juice. His lifestyle was a bone of contention between him and Giri who accused him of damaging the akhara’s reputation.
Giri was also upset that Anand had not cut ties with his family, said a seer. “He was a sanyasi, but he didn’t take sanyas in the true sense,” the seer told TOI, adding that Anand was married and had children.
The two were embroiled in a bitter property dispute, with Anand opposing Giri’s decision to sell land of Baghambari mutt to individuals. Things came to a head when Giri accused his disciple of financial irregularities. “The Akhara Parishad chief suspected that Anand had used mutt money to build his own ashram in Haridwar where he housed his family,” said a seer.
Once Anand was expelled from the mutt, he was quoted in media reports this year claiming to have videos and other evidence of sadhus, including Giri, engaging in “immoral activities”. But things seemed to have settled down in May this year when a compromise was made between the two in Lucknow in the presence of a former MLA from the Samajwadi Party SP, another leader from the BJP and a senior police officer.
According to police, the accused has claimed that he has been framed by people angry over his opposition to sale of the mutt land to private individuals.