The post-mortem report of Mahant Narendra Giri, who was found hanging at an Allahabad mutt on Monday, has confirmed death due to suffocation and a ligature mark around his neck, sources in the Uttar Pradesh home department said on Wednesday.

A source said: “If we look at the post-mortem report together with the police report that says the two doors of Narendra Giri’s room were locked from inside, then the suicide theory is substantiated.”

The post-mortem was done on Wednesday by a panel of five doctors. Some family members and disciples of Narendra, the chairman of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad that is an umbrella body of the country’s 15 major akharas or sects of naga sadhus, have alleged that he was blackmailed and murdered.

The police have claimed to have found an eight-page suicide note in his room at the Baghambari Mutt. Media reports have said Narendra had mentioned in his suicide note that his estranged disciple Anand Giri had been blackmailing him. Anand is in police custody.

After the autopsy, Narendra’s body was taken for a bath to the Ganga in Allahabad in a procession led by deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. He was then laid to rest at the Baghambari Mutt. Hindu seers are buried, not cremated.

Ravindra Puri, secretary of the Niranjani Akhara to which the Baghambari Mutt belongs, said: “The suicide note is fake.” Narendra Giri didn’t know how to write.”