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Originally posted by rvikz:
i dont know about sadhus i never met one how can i pre-judge them. i am sure they are better people than fully clothed corrupt politicians.
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rvikz, since you would like to know them better....kindly read this and abeatifu picture is available of them, just ask if yiou need to see it
Unholy city
Ayodhya: Many sadhus raise their hands not to bless but to kill. They peddle drugs and swear by rum, not Ram. By Ajay Uprety
Ayodhya wakes up to the first rays of the sun playing on the swift waters of the Sarayu. Hundreds of semi-clad sadhus, wet clothes hugging their austere bodies, squat on temple floors chanting hymns and mantras. The chiming of bells rents the air and the smell of fresh flowers invades the lungs
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Sadhus enjoying their drink in Ayodhya
Beneath this facade lies the slimy underbelly of the holy city where criminals in the guise of sadhus indulge in activities that will shame even the most ruthless underworld shark. Fights between different factions to gain control of 4,000 maths in Ayodhya have turned the city into a bloody battlefield. Most maths have large land holdings and get thousands of rupees as charawah (offering) every month.
Criminalisation of Ayodhya began about two decades ago. Kamdev Singh, a don from Bihar, took refuge in a math. He died in an encounter but by then more criminals had realised the advantage of disguising themselves as sadhus. The police seldom raid a math, questioning a sadhu's past is against tradition, and he can hide behind a new name, often a derivation of his guru's name.
Ram Kripal Das of Mungerv in Bihar, migrated to Ayodhya in the mid 80s after killing a local politician. He became the chela (disciple) of Mahant Laxman Das of Basantia Patti, Hanuman Ghari and for over a decade he lorded over the Ayodhya underworld with his gang of sadhus. Two dozen cases of murder and loot were registered against him in Ayodhya before he was killed in November 1996.
"Ram Kripal was an expert bomb maker," said a former associate of his, "and the Samajwadi Party helped him become the mahant of Sanatan Mandir." A police officer said the political connections of the sadhus often came in the way of combating crime.
A police attempt two years ago to identify sadhus with criminal connections failed because of the large number of temples and maths in Ayodhya, almost every house in the town has a temple. But the number of criminal cases against mahants and sadhus has crossed the century mark.
Some of the murder cases relate to property. In September 1991, the 70-year-old mahant of Janki Ghat, Barasthan, was strangled in his bedroom. Three sadhus, Janmejai Sharan, Balgovind Das and Kamlesh Das, were accused of killing him to usurp the temple property worth Rs 15 crore. Janmejai became the mahant while the case is pending.
There have been several killings for control of the Hanuman Ghari temple complex, where 600 sadhus live. It started in 1984, when mahant Harbhajan Das was shot dead by his own men. In 1992 Deen Bandhu Das, the head of the temple complex was killed; three years later it was the turn of the mahant of Hanuman Ghari, Baba Ram Agya Das. Das was at loggerheads with his guru, Baba Triyugi Das, over a piece of temple land.
In a fight for the mahant's seat at Lakshman Quila temple last year, country bombs were lobbed into the room of Mahant Maithali Sharanacharya. The appointment of Sharanacharya was challenged by Sanjay Jha alias Maithali Raman Sharan, a former mahant's driver who had the support of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas chief Ramchandra Paramhans and BJP state vice-president Vinay Katiyar. Raman Sharan usurped the mahant's seat, and the sadhus supporting Sharanacharya launched an agitation in protest. Finally, the district administration intervened and handed over the temple keys to the agitating sadhus in March this year.
Sometimes the local people also have to pay with their lives for the greed of the sants. Thus in November 1998, disciples of Mohan Das alias Mauni Baba opened fire on the residents of Guptar Ghat, killing four persons. The Baba and his disciples had allegedly planned to grab the land adjacent to their Guptar Ghat ashram.
Baba Gyan Das, mahant of Sagaria Patti, admitted that many criminals had made maths their hideouts. He blamed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) for the criminalisation of Ayodhya. "The VHP wants to control all the temples and it has turned many mahants into killers," he said.
Tears ran down the cheeks of Guru Ram Kripal Das, mahant of Bhakt Mal Bhavan, while narrating the harassment he was undergoing. A hundred sadhus attacked his math last April and, though he escaped death by hiding himself, he had ever since been receiving nasty calls asking him to leave Ayodhya. Blaming Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, deputy chief of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, for the attack he said Gopal Das was after the Bhakt Mal Bhavan property. "His men have forcibly occupied the land and have even started construction there," said Kripal Das. "I cannot do anything because he has the VHP's support."
Besides grabbing land, many sadhus are into gun-running. A police officer said a large number of prominent sadhus carried guns and those who had legally obtained weapons rarely renewed their licences.
In the holy city, where selling of meat is banned, smack and other narcotic drugs are available on its subterranean tracks. It is home to about 70 drug peddlers like 'Asharfi Maharaj', who takes his customers to a sadhu in a dingy temple-cum-house. Smack comes from the opium fields of Barabanki, 100 km from Ayodhya.
A small packet of smack costs between Rs 50 and Rs 150 in Ayodhya. The peddlers, in the guise of sadhus, operate from the nondescript maths and it is the other sadhus who are the main customers. Liquor flows, too, and one can see sadhus relishing their rum on the banks of the Sarayu.
** Drugs, drinks and arms have become a way of life for these swamis who hide their deeds behind their saffron clothes and sacred ash. The mortals of this world dare not touch these godmen. They drink from the cup of life till their past catches up with them in the form of bullets or bombs. **