THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 28-year-old Kerala “swamini” who once had a large number of devotees including film stars has committed suicide along with her mother by taking cyanide.
Police sources said Divya Joshi, head of the Sree Rudrathu Vishnumaya Math, who was held in a fraud case last year, took the extreme step fearing arrest in another case. The bodies were found in their house attached to her ashram in the northern district of Thrissur.
The autopsy could not be conducted Saturday on the bodies of Divya and her mother Usha as their relatives failed to turn up to claim the bodies. All her close relatives stayed away from the hospital.
Police have recovered a two-page suicide note from her house. It said she was killing herself because she was cheated by one George from Kunnamkulam, who registered a complaint against her. She also blames her brother Santosh for her plight. Police had arrested her husband Puthupulliparambil Joshi Friday evening following George’s complaint of swindling money from him. The ‘sanyasin’ was worried as she was expecting her arrest anytime. According to George’s complaint the couple made him believe he was going to get a treasure of Rs 5 billion (Rs 500 crore) and took Rs 8 million (Rs 80 lakh) toward the expenses of poojas, the rituals, for unveiling the treasure trove.
Her father had also committed suicide a few years back when she married Joshi against his will. She soon turned to “spirituality” saying her great grandmother Chakki had predicted that she would one day become a sanyasin with a huge fan following.
She also anointed 112 chathans, the hobgoblins, in her ashram and started worshipping them. The blood sacrifice was a regular ritual at the ashram to please the chathans to overcome the obstacles and fulfil desires of the devotees.
She attracted devotees offering everlasting happiness and an end to all sufferings.
Joshi claimed to have attained the ‘divine attribute’ status or Siddhi by her “steadfast divine meditation over many years together with the virtues which is blessed and passed on to her by forefathers.” The ashram attracted a large number of people from the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to receive “divine blessings of the Goddess VishnuMaya being transferred to the devotees through the special meditative powers of Divya Joshi.” “A former minister from Karnataka who visited and sought the blessings of the Goddess, soon got rid of troubles haunting him, now conducts regular poojas every month,” claimed her website adding that the pleased minister sponsored five elephants at the ashram. It also clams to have helped Tamil Nadu’s detective agents to crack a complicated case.
She and her husband Puthupulliparambil Joshi were arrested and sent to jail for cheating during the crackdown against the “godmen” in Kerala last year during which more than a dozen such people were exposed including one who was jailed for raping minor girls and making pornographic films.
The “swamini” had also said to have given semi-nude “darshan” to devotees including males. During last year’s raids, police found many luxury cars and incriminating documents of unaccounted money running to millions of rupees.
She was arrested on a complaint of a woman devotee that ‘swamini’ had promised to cure her by performing poojas and made to pay Rs44,700 for poojas. But she wasn’t cured.
