Temple watchman murdered

SURAT, JAN 21: Unidentified persons murdered the watchman of the Badrinarayan Mandir at Adajan Road and burnt down the main door of the t...

SURAT, JAN 21: Unidentified persons murdered the watchman of the Badrinarayan Mandir at Adajan Road and burnt down the main door of the temple, in an attack early on Wednesday. Though no motive has yet been established for the act, as nothing was reported missing from the temple, personal enmity is suspected to have triggered the murder.

Though the temple trustees identified the watchman as Ramesh in their complaint, perusal of his personal documents have revealed the deceased to be one Agnes Karekatta from Trikal of Hazaribagh district, Bihar. He was aged between 32 and 35.

According to the police, the incident occurred between 3 am and 4.45 am — the watchman was with the temple gardener till 2.30 am — and was brought to the notice of the temple authorities by a labourer who saw the temple door up in flames. The watchman was found face down in a pool of blood; a deep cut extending from below the right ear to the middle of the neck is presumed to have been the cause of death.

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Fire-fighters weresummoned soon afterwards to douse the flames eating up the 20-feet-high wooden door, but water used to extinguish the fire appeared to have obliterated all leads, as the sniffer dogs borrowed from Reliance Industries — the police dog-teams were engaged in the bandobast for January 26 celebrations — could not track down any scents.

All senior police officials, including commissioner Kuldip Sharma, visited the spot of the crime. No arrests have been made in the case.

Talking to The Indian Express, Rander police inspector Aniruddha M Jadeja, who is in charge of the investigation, said, “Personal enmity seems to be the most likely cause of the murder, as no valuable was touched in the temple. The door was probably burnt down to mislead the police.”

Sources, however, said the police did not rule out the possibility that Karekatta had tried to prevent the miscreants from burning down the temple.

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According to sources, the deceased came to the city from Bihar five months ago in search ofwork. The temple job was his second; police feel he may have given a false name to the temple authorities to disguise his Christian identity. The police said he was also known to be an alcoholic.

More than 100 people living around the temple and guests at a wedding that took place on Tuesday night at the temple had been questioned, Jadeja said, adding that, however, none of them had any useful information to offer.

When contacted, both city unit president of the Bajrang Dal Ashwin Modi, as well as VHP working president Lalji Patel refused to comment on the incident.