Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giri was found dead. It was in 2016 that Giri first took over as chief of the Akhara Parishad. It was during his tenure that the Parishad released a list of allegedly “fake saints”. In 2019, Giri was elected chief of the Parishad for a second time. Giri’s body was found in Baghambari mutt in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. According to initial reports, he was found hanging. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will visit Prayagraj today to pay his last respects to Mahant.
Last year, a year after the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya title suit, a meeting of the Akhara Parishad, chaired by Giri, had passed a resolution saying they would initiate a campaign on the lines of Ram Janmabhoomi movement to “free the Hindu temples” in Varanasi and Mathura. Recently, Giri had also demanded the inclusion of the Akhara Parishad in the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust.