Hyderabad, Dec 18 (IANS) Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama Friday declined to answer queries about a seven-year-old girl who shot into the limelight for claiming she was his childhood friend and disciple in her previous life.
The Dalai Lama, who arrived here on a two-day visit, did not answer any questions from journalists about the girl, Sambhavi, or her “caretaker” Usha Rani, who gave a new twist to the “child saint” row by revealing that she is the mother of the girl.

Usha Rani, who filed an affidavit in the state high court Thursday, revealed that she is the mother of the girl and also denied that she claimed the girl possessed “supernatural” powers.

The woman, who had so far been claiming to be only the “caretaker” of Sambhavi, filed the affidavit after a group of rationalists moved the court seeking release of the child from her “illegal detention”.

Sambhavi, who recently met the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala, and Usha Rani were trying to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader who is staying at a five-star hotel in the city.

The child is at the centre of a row between Usha Rani and rationalists and human rights activists who are demanding that the child be sent to school.

The state government recently conducted an investigation on the direction of the State Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

This followed a petition by rationalists that the girl should be in school and not in a temple. They alleged that Usha Rani and some others were exploiting her childhood.

Sambhavi attracted people’s attention in April this year by claiming to be the Dalai Lama’s disciple in her previous life. She also predicted that Tibet would get independence in 2012.

After her claims, people started thronging an old temple at Suryanandi in Kurnool district for her “darshan”.

After several questions were raised about Sambhavi’s background and her parents during the investigations, Usha Rani has now admitted she is the child’s mother.

She told the court in her affidavit that after the death of her first husband in Guntur district she had gone to an “ashram” in Varanasi, where she married yoga teacher Saumya Acharya. Sambhavi was born in the temple town of Tirupati in 2002.

Meanwhile, the high court Friday adjourned the hearing of Sambhavi’s case to Dec 22 but directed Kurnool district authorities to provide necessary ayurvedic treatment to the child as requested by Usha Rani.