Self-styled priest’s death case closed; police cite heart attack as cause of death

The controversy surrounding the mysterious death of Gopan Swamy, alias Maniyan, a self-styled priest from Neyyattinkara in Keralam, appears to have ended, with the police concluding that there was no suspicious circumstance surrounding his death.

In its final report submitted to the court, the police said Gopan died of a heart attack and was not murdered, nor was he alive when placed in the “samadhi” chamber.

The case had attracted widespread attention in Keralam after Gopan’s family placed his body in a concrete chamber near their residence at Aralumoodu in January 2025.

The family had maintained that Gopan, who had been suffering from age-related and other health problems, had chosen to enter “samadhi” himself. However, the fact that neither his death nor the burial-like ritual had been publicly disclosed initially led local residents to suspect that something was amiss. Those suspicions eventually prompted a police investigation.