Land mortgage deal may be behind priest’s murder

Interestingly, for one leading a life of religion, the priest had Rs 75,000 tucked away in fixed deposits and Rs. 10,000 in a savings account. The police has also recovered a country-made pistol and 10 live cartridges from the priest’s room near the temple on the Vadodara-Godhra highway.

Police said two farmers of Baska village, Amarsinh Sahab Chauhan and Nansinh Lala Jadav, had mortgaged their agricultural land for Rs.10,000 and Rs. 11,000 with the priest and K P Singh, owner of Gunjan Hotel in Halol and the priest’s disciple. Papers relating to both deals were with the priest.

And, says Halol police station PSI G S Pawar, who is conducting investigations, the only things missing from the room are land mortgage papers. “We are conducting scientific investigations and will be putting the suspects through a lie detector test. We have already lifted fingerprints from the spot with the help of experts from Ahmedabad”, Pawar pointed out.

The incident has puzzled both the police as well as his disciples and colleagues in other temples of the nearby villages. “How could he be murdered in such a brutal manner when he had no enmity with anybody in the area”, exclaims Sanatan Bharatiya, a priest of the Sidhdhnath Mahadev Temple in Medi Madar village, about 10 kms away from the Anandpura village.

Singh also expressed surprise over the Maharaj’s killing; the latter was due to inaugurate a factory of Singh’s this month. “The Maharaj had established very good relations with people in Anandpura village”, Singh said. His Hanuman temple, with a two-room apartment and an old water tank called Mata-ki-Vav, is located on the outskirts of the village in a picturesque setting of bushes and mango, pomegranate and ber trees. Both Bharatiya and Singh dismissed the possibility of any communal angle in the incident.

“Though associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Akhil Bharatiya Sadhu Samaj, he had very good relations with the Muslims of Baska village. He always went to a Muslim doctor for treatment and also took me to him once when I was unwell”, said Bharatiya. Deputy sarpanch of Anandpur village Ratnabnen, while refusing to comment on the incident, said: “Maharaj taught our children religious sanskars. We have lost a patron and guide.”