Indore: Finding spiritual guru Bhayyu Maharaj guilty of abetment to suicide by blackmailing him, a district court on Friday sentenced a 28-year-old woman and three of her associates to six years’ rigorous imprisonment. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Soni convicted Palak Puranic (28), Vinayak Dudhade (45), and Sharad Deshmukh (37) in the high-profile case of suicide of the spiritual guru, Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), Section 306 (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Abetment of suicide) and convicted under section 384 (extortion) and sentenced to this sentence.
Bhaiyyu Maharaj (50) allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his licensed revolver on June 12, 2018, at his bungalow on Bypass Road in Indore, officials said. Seven months after this sensational incident, police arrested Palak Puranic along with two trusted associates of spiritual guru Vinayak Dudhade and Sharad Deshmukh, he said.
According to the police, Palak was allegedly pressurizing Bhaiyyu Maharaj to marry him through incriminating chats and other personal items, while the middle-aged spiritual guru was already married. The police had recovered a suicide note written on the pages of a small diary from the house of Bhaiyyu Maharaj.
In it, he wrote that “he is ending his life due to heavy stress.” After arresting Puranic, Dudhade, and Deshmukh, the police told the media that they were blackmailing Bhaiyyu Maharaj and giving him drugs in large quantities.
