The Bageshwar Dham "Divine Court": A Mind-Reading Godman Declines the Test
A wildly popular young Hindu preacher, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham, draws huge crowds with a "Divya Darbar" in which he claims to name total strangers and write down their secret troubles by the grace of Hanuman. In January 2023 a veteran anti-superstition campaigner publicly offered him 30 lakh rupees to prove the power under fair conditions. Shastri never sat the test, cut his program short, and left town. Police, asked only whether his event broke the law, found no crime — but no one ever demonstrated the divine power itself.
A wildly popular young Hindu preacher, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham, draws huge crowds with a "Divya Darbar" in which he claims to name total strangers and write down their secret troubles by the grace of Hanuman. In January 2023 a veteran anti-superstition campaigner publicly offered him 30 lakh rupees to prove the power under fair conditions. Shastri never sat the test, cut his program short, and left town. Police, asked only whether his event broke the law, found no crime — but no one ever demonstrated the divine power itself.
A fuller write-up of the documentation and analysis is in progress.
Sources
Tagged by proximity to the event. Primary sources are direct or contemporaneous; tertiary are downstream retellings.
- 1.Secondarynews
Profiles Shyam Manav and the challenge; describes the test (names/phone numbers of 10 people) and that Shastri left without taking it.
- 2.Secondarynews
Confirms complaint lodged Jan 8, 2023; police decision Jan 25, 2023; names organization Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti; quotes Nagpur Police on no offense.
- 3.Secondarynews
Independent confirmation: Shree Ram Katha Jan 5-13; Rs 30 lakh challenge; Shyam Manav founder of Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti; Commissioner Amitesh Kumar clean chit (Jan 26, 2023).
- 4.Tertiarywebsite
"Dhirendra Krishna Shastri", Wikipedia, 2024
Background on Divya Darbar claims (exorcism, illness diagnosis, mind reading), the Manav challenge, and police clean chit; aggregates the above press reporting.