The Bombay High Court has granted time till June 29 to the Pune Crime Branch to take steps to procure the original will of late spiritual guru Osho (Bhagwan Rajneesh) from a court in Spain.
A division bench of Justice RM Sawant and Justice Sarang Kotwal were presented with a progress report by the police which indicated the steps taken by them to get the original will from the foreign court. Following which the bench directed them to present another progress report on the next date of hearing.
The direction was given during the hearing of a petition filed by Yogesh Thakkar who has sought CBI to take over the probe in the alleged case of fraud. He claimed that trustees of the Switzerland-based Osho International Foundation had forged Rajneesh's signatures on a fake will to transfer his intellectual property rights in the foundation's name. Thakkar had also lodged an FIR with the Koregaon Park police in Pune in December 2013. However, later he claimed that no headway was made into the probe by the police and sought for CBI investigation into the matter. Following which, though not the CBI, the case was transferred to the EOW of Pune police.
On a previous hearing, the court had directed the EOW to obtain a copy of Rajneesh's original will, which, according to the petitioner, had once been submitted before a court in Spain. Thakkar in his plea filed through Advocate Pradeep Havnur said investigations have been pending for a long time.
The FIR was filed under Sections 465, 467 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code that pertain to 'punishment for forgery', 'forgery of valuable security, will', and 'using as genuine a forged document' in 2013, but still there has been no headway. It is alleged by Thakkar that foreigners have systematically smuggled and siphoned off Osho's work, articles and yogic meditation techniques.
