Popular Jain monk Tarun Sagar died around 3:30 am on Saturday in Krishna Nagar area of Shahdara in Delhi. He was 51.
He had recently been diagnosed with jaundice and was admitted at a private hospital in Delhi.
Gold Rate
Thursday 20 March 2025
His last rites will be performed at the Tarun Sagar Tirth on the Delhi-Meerut highway at 3 PM today.
It is learnt that he had refused to take medicines and had instead decided to go to a Jain temple in Krishna Nagar.
In his tributes, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he was saddened to hear about the untimely death”. “He was a source of inspiration and his death has left a void in society,” he said in a tweet.
Tarun Sagar was born on June 26, 1967 at Damoh in Madhya Pradesh. At the age of 14, he left his home (in March 1981) and took religious trainings in Chhattisgarh.
Over the years, he was invited by various governments to address state assemblies. However, his address at the Haryana Vidhan Sabha became controversial when musician and Aam Aadmi Party leader Vishal Dadlani mocked the Jain monk for appearing nude in the assembly during his address. He apologised after the police slapped cases against him.
The Jain monk regularly spoke on contemporary socio-political issues like female foeticide, politicians with criminal records, terrorism, Pakistan, among others.
He had once said that female foeticide it is a “big problem that disturbs the balance of the society, leading to more crimes and rapes”, and had called for actions at individual, political and religious levels.
In September 2017, news agency PTI said the Jain monk has demanded an investigation into the wealth amassed by self-styled godmen in India. He reportedly said that there were about 1,400 cheats in the country who call themselves godmen or saints. “Every third godmen in India is a fraud,” he had said.
Speaking on Pakistan and terrorism in June last year, he said India has more “traitors within than the number of terrorists in Pakistan”.
“People who live in the country and revere Pakistan, aren’t they traitors? India has more traitors within, than the number of terrorists in Pakistan,” Sagar said, according to a sources report.
