HI-tech cameras, latest mobile phones, laptops — the controversial Swami Amritanand Dev Teerath alias Dayanand Pandey was more of a “gadget guru” than the mahant he tried to portray himself as.

The self-proclaimed Shankaracharya of Shardapeeth, a religious shrine revered by the Kashmiri Pandits that is in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, used to spend most of his time talking on his mobile phone or shooting with his video camera places and functions he visited and attended across the state. While travelling in Jammu and Kashmir, he used his police escort and security cover to con people into believing that he was a prominent religious leader. However, those who knew him closely claimed that Pandey knew nothing about religious rituals and was a late riser, unlike most mahants who follow the ritual of getting up before sunrise.

Pandey was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with the Malegaon blast on November 12, 2008. He had floated a charitable trust, Kashyapmeru Shankaracharya Amritanand Vedic Vishav Kalyan Trust, with its official address as the house of a CA in Trikuta Nagar here.

Pandey was also among the religious leaders who had participated in the two-month-long Amarnath agitation. He visited the Valley and stayed at a number of places, including Shankaracharya temples.

Two months after his arrest by the Mumbai ATS, while the Sangh Parivar may be smelling conspiracy, those who brought him to the state from Delhi and introduced him to people here in 2003, said they found his behaviour unbecoming of a religious leader. They claimed Pandey was never seen performing any puja.

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