The Pune police on Tuesday sought more time from the Bombay high court to submit a report on the status of its probe into a December 2013 case relating to allegations that the will of spiritual guru Osho was forged. The HC, keeping in mind "the nature of the allegations", directed the additional public prosecutor to seek instructions from the Pune police commissioner "as to whether investigations could be transferred to its economic offences wing (EOW)''
Last year, the HC had said it would monitor the investigation by Pune's
Koregaon police till January 15 and had sought a progress update before considering a plea made by a charitable trust,
Osho Friends Foundation and two interveners, both Italian nationals, for transferring the probe to an independent agency. The HC bench of Justices
Bhushan Gavai and B P
Colabawalla, was hearing a petition filed by Yogesh Thakkar who is a managing trustee of Osho Friends Foundation and a former disciple of Bhagwan Rajneesh, better known as Osho, who sought a probe by the CBI into his FIR that the guru's "signature on the will was forged.''
The FIR is against six trustees, mostly foreigners, including the executer named in the will that was made in 1989.
While the interveners' advocate pushed for the probe to be transferred, the lawyer for one of the accused objected. The court observed that the EOW is more suited to handle cases like this. It, however, adjourned the hearing by a week to enable to the Pune police to submit its report.
Representative Image
