Guru’s disappearance to be probed by CBI, Ramdev slams Cong as ‘khooni’

A day after the Uttarakhand government recommended a CBI probe into the disappearance of his mentor, Swami Shankar Dev, in 2007, yoga guru-turned-activist Baba Ramdev today put up a brave face and said he was willing to subject himself to any inquiry.

"I am ready for any probe. I am not afraid of any probe. Last year, I myself had submitted a memorandum to the President demanding a CBI probe or any probe under the supervision of a sitting Supreme Court judge," Ramdev said today.

Launching a counter-attack following allegations that he could be behind the disappearance, Ramdev hit out at the Congress party. "Jis khandan ki parampara khooni rahi ho, usse sabhi khooni nazar aate hain (The family that has a tradition of murdering, sees everyone else as murderer)," he said.

He did not elaborate on the accusation but mentioned the deaths of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and the "slow poisoning" of Jayaprakash Narayan.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said Ramdev's remarks were too demeaning to even elicit a reaction. "And such language from a man who wears a saffron robe and calls himself a yoga guru," she said.

The Uttarakhand government, in a surprise move on Friday evening, recommended a CBI probe into the five-year-old missing case of Swami Shankar Dev, the founder of Divya Yog Mandir Trust which Ramdev now runs.

The case dates back to July 14, 2007, when Shankar Dev reportedly went missing after going for a morning walk. The state police began investigating the case after Ramdev's close aide Acharya Balkrishna filed an FIR at Kankhal police station in Haridwar on July 16, 2007. On April 10 this year, the police filed a closure report after they failed to make any progress in the case.

Ramdev today rubbished the allegations that he had a fight with his guru and also that he had exerted any pressure to end the probe.

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