Seer Narendra Giri's Death Shows How Temple Offerings Are Misused: Digvijaya Singh

Congress MP Digvijaya Singh said that some pictures of Anand Giri, Narendra Giri's disciple, surfaced recently showed he wanted to become a film star and not a seer.

Congress MP Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said the "mysterious" death of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giri shows the misuse of offerings made at temples.

The seer, who was the president of the largest organisation of sadhus in India, was found hanging at Baghambari Math in Uttar Pradesh by his disciples on Monday.

The late seer's disciple Anand Giri was detained in Haridwar after a purported suicide note was found, in which the seer wrote that Anand Giri was trying to blackmail him using a morphed picture of a woman. A case of abetting suicide was lodged against Anand Giri.

"It is said that Narendra Giri took the extreme step leaving behind a suicide note which the UP police is investigating. But, what he wrote in his suicide note is a matter of concern that how money offered in temples and "maths" are being misused...How corruption is marring the purchase and sale of property (of temples)," Mr Singh told reporters in Sehore, about 40 km from Bhopal.