In yet another sensational killing of a priest in the temple town Ayodhya, a Naga sadhu was brutally murdered in an ashram located in the Siddha Peeth Hanuman Garhi temple complex in Ram Janmabhoomi police station area of the district.
There were deep cuts inflicted with some sharp weapon on the neck, chest and back of the victim. It is suspected that he was first strangled with a thin wire and then stabbed with a knife.
On getting information of the murder on Thursday morning, Senior Superintendent of Police Rajkaran Nair, Superintendent of Police (City) Madhuban Singh and Circle Officer Bikapur Dr Rajesh Tiwari reached the spot along with a forensic team and started investigation.
The deceased sadhu was identified as Ramshaare Das aka Durbal Das (44), a disciple of Ram Sahare Das. He was associated with Basantia Patti.
Durbal Das reportedly lived in the third room of the innermost part of the ashram. Two disciples also lived with him. After the murder came to light, a disciple named Rishabh Shukla was found absconding while the other disciple Govind Das has been detained by the police.
According to information, Durbal Das had kept Rishabh Shukla with him 15 days ago and he used to cook food.
Robbery is suspected to be behind the murder.
The Naga sadhus living in and around the temple say that Durbal Das used to do the shringar of Hanumanji.
CCTV was installed in all the rooms of the ashram but someone had switched it off. Police have found some footage in which the person who switched off the CCTV has been captured. The police have taken the footage and hard disc into their custody.
SSP Rajkaran Nair said that the body had been sent for post-mortem and four teams had been deployed to work out the case.
It may be mentioned that this is the second such incident in Hanuman Garhi campus within a month. Earlier, in another ashram located in front of this ashram, a Sanskrit student had committed suicide by hanging himself.
Meanwhile, a youth who set himself on fire in front of the main branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Gonda on not getting a loan on Wednesday, died during treatment in Lucknow on Thursday.
Divyaraj Pandey, son of Munna Lal Pandey of Sarhara Pandeypurwa under Itiyathok police station of Gonda district, was trying to take a business loan from the bank. He had come to the main branch of the district along with Vishwanath Pandey of the village. On Wednesday afternoon, Divyaraj set himself on fire by sprinkling some inflammable substance on himself in front of the bank. While trying to save him, Pradeep Pandey also got burnt.
State Bank of India Regional Manager Gyan Prakash informed media persons that there was no loan related case of the victim with any branch of the bank.
