Indian followers of deceased guru Ashutosh Maharaj sit in front of posters bearing his image at a stall during a congregation at his ashram. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

An Indian court has allowed disciples of a spiritual guru to preserve his body in a freezer, as they believe he is in a deep state of meditation and will return to life.

Ashutosh Maharaj, founder of the multimillion-dollar sect, Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission), apparently died of a cardiac arrest in January 2014.

But his followers insist he is in a deep spiritual state called samadhi and have controversially kept his body in a commercial freezer at his heavily guarded 100-acre ashram in the northern state of Punjab.

On Wednesday, the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed a three-year-old petition by Dalip Kumar Jha, who claims to be his son and who wanted his fathers body to cremate him, as per Hindu rituals.

Jhas lawyer, SP Soi, told AFP that it was unclear whether the court approved the sects argument that Maharaj was alive. But they dismissed our petition, which is disappointing, and we will challenge it in the supreme court, said Soi.

The court, while rejecting their plea, set aside a 2014 judgment that had ordered Maharajs cremation after doctors confirmed him clinically dead.

Maharajs disciples had challenged the courts cremation order, saying he had simply drifted into a deeper form of meditation, something he did often in sub-zero Himalayan temperatures.

The guru established the sect in Punjabs Jalandhar city in 1983 to promote self-awakening and global peace, with millions of followers across the world and properties worth an estimated $120m in India, the US, South America, Australia, the Middle East and Europe.

Jha claims that the gurus real name was Mahesh Kumar Jha, and he left his native village in eastern Bihar state in the late 1970s before founding the sect.

Jha and Maharajs former driver, Puran Singh, filed petitions in court soon after the gurus death demanding a criminal investigation, and alleged the sect members were deliberately holding his body to retain control of his vast financial assets.

Maharaj is one of several gurus who in recent decades have built huge empires and command millions of followers, particularly in northern India.

For followers, gurus play an integral role in daily life, including a path to enlightenment. Followers offer spiritual devotion and donations to ashrams, temples and charity projects.

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Indian court allows guru's disciples to continue preserving his body in freezer - The Guardian