On Sunday, thousands of disciples of convicted guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim pledged to donate organs and dead bodies to the needy with the belief they would be serving the humankind even after their death. Hundreds of dead bodies have also been donated to several medical colleges in India.

The followers have been tweeting ever since under the hashtag #servelifeafterdeath.

In 2017, after Gurmeet Ram Rahim was exposed, many medical colleges were under the radar for accepting donated cadavers without fulfilling the legal formalities. One of those hospitals was GCRG Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow. Eighty other colleges were beneficiaries of this service, too. The college had defended its action by saying that they have photocopies of Aadhar cards of the dead and of those who had handed over the bodies along with affidavits on stamp papers. The institute also had copies of ambulance receipts for each corpse donated to them by the Dera. 

With this move, the footfall of followers has increased again at all locations associated with the cult. The cult following had taken a hit after Ram Rahim was sentenced.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim has long been involved in charity like building schools, colleges and hospitals for promoting education and social welfare programmes like organising health camps, eye and blood donation camps claiming to serve the society. He also holds a few records in the Guinness Book of World Records, including one for the largest eye health screening camp and that for the largest blood donation camp organised on two different occasions.