Diaspora charities send their money to a billion-rupee religious empire in Uttar Pradesh. Its founder is dead, one of his three heirs is dead, and his son’s branch is said to be moving on it.
CONFIRMEDThe trust and its apparatus: the girls’ schools, three free hospitals, Prem Mandir, the founder’s and Vishakha Tripathi’s deaths, and the two sisters who lead now. CORROBORATEDThe succession dispute: trustees’ allegation that the son’s branch is moving on the trust, documented in the press.
A single religious trust worth billions of rupees runs a chain of girls’ schools, three free hospitals, and a Rs 150 crore temple. It is headquartered at Mangarh, in Kunda, Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh. Diaspora charities raise money abroad and send it here. The founder is dead. One of his three chosen heirs is dead. His son’s branch is said to be moving on what remains.
Ram Kripalu Tripathi died on November 15, 2013. Followers knew him as Kripalu Maharaj. He left a religious trust worth billions of rupees, run from Mangarh in Kunda, Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh. The trust is old. It began in 1970 as the Sadhna Bhavan Trust. It carries the name Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat now, shortened to JKP. The schools, the hospitals, the temple, and the money from abroad all run through it.
The apparatus is charitable, and it is large. JKP Education runs the Kripalu Balika girls’ schools, registered under PAN AABTJ6442L. Jagadguru Kripalu Chikitsalaya runs three free hospitals that treat patients at no charge. The first opened at Mangarh in 2003. The second opened at Barsana in 2007. Both opened while the founder was alive. The third opened at Vrindavan in 2015, after his death. In Vrindavan the trust also built Prem Mandir, a temple that cost roughly Rs 150 crore and opened in 2012, one year before the founder died. The diaspora charities that raise money abroad send it into this apparatus. That is where it lands.
Three towns carry the trust. Mangarh in Pratapgarh holds the headquarters and the 2003 hospital. Barsana holds the 2007 hospital. Vrindavan holds the 2015 hospital and Prem Mandir. One trust runs all three.
In 2002 the founder settled who would run all of it. He installed his three unmarried daughters as co-presidents: Vishakha, Shyama, and Krishna Tripathi. He did not install his son. Three unmarried daughters now sat over a trust worth billions of rupees. Eleven years later he died, and the three women held the trust together.
In 2002 he made his three daughters co-presidents. By November 2024, one of the three was dead.
On November 24, 2024, Vishakha Tripathi died in a crash on the Yamuna Expressway. The co-presidency fell from three to two. Shyama leads from Shyama Shyam Dham in Vrindavan. Krishna leads from Rangeeli Mahal in Barsana. The two surviving sisters sit at two of the trust’s own temple towns.
The founder had a son, Ghanshyam. He was not one of the co-presidents. Trustees have alleged that Ghanshyam’s branch is trying to take over the multi-billion-rupee trust. The claim is documented in the press. JKP has rebutted it in public. The founder wrote three names into the leadership in 2002: Vishakha, Shyama, and Krishna. The 2024 crash left two. Ghanshyam was never one of the three.
The trust is worth billions of rupees. That is the prize. The money still lands at Mangarh. Who holds Mangarh is the one question the family has not closed. Two sisters hold it now. A dead founder chose them, and passed over the son whose branch now wants in.
In fairness. JKP has publicly rebutted the allegation that Ghanshyam’s branch is attempting to take over the trust. No court case over the succession sits on the public record, and the allegation stands as an allegation.
Sources. JKP charitable registrations and PAN AABTJ6442L; the trust’s public statements; press coverage of the 2002 succession, the November 24, 2024 crash on the Yamuna Expressway, and the takeover allegation.
The JKP Map is independent reporting and analysis on a matter of public concern. The only criminal conviction referenced is that of Prakashanand Saraswati; every other person named is presumed to have acted lawfully, and nothing here is a finding of anyone else’s guilt or civil liability. Victim identities, home addresses, and confidential-source identities are withheld.