LUCKNOW The murder of Mahant Ram Sahare Das, 44, at Ayodhya’s Hanumangarhi Temple on Thursday unravelled another ‘deadly tale’ of greed and betrayal in this temple town. The police on Friday claimed to have cracked the case after the arrest of two disciples who allegedly killed the priest over wealth and successorship and recovered ₹1.08 lakh and valuables that were looted after the murder.
The priest’s throat-slit body was found in his room adjacent the temple on Thursday morning. The murder weapons — a knife and a stone – were also found, as per a press note released by the police.
Ayodhya police officials said the two disciples were identified as a Bihar resident Ankit Das alias Ankit Pandey and a 17-year-old boy of Shahjahanpur. Ayodhya SSP Raj Karan Nayyar informed that Das was the deceased priest’s disciple since 2017, but had returned to his home during Covid-19 pandemic. He returned to the victim around two months ago while the minor disciple joined the priest 15 days ago.
“There are four groups, commonly known as ‘Patti’, that operate as priests of Hanumangarhi temple, and a priest of each group gets two months of work period in rotation. The victim had recently completed his work period and received cash and valuables, which he kept with himself after getting it counted by his two disciples, who stayed with him in the same room,” the SSP said.
“Originally, Ankit Das hatched the conspiracy and roped in the minor disciple to execute the crime,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Originally, Ankit Das hatched the conspiracy and roped in the minor disciple to execute the crime,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Another cop said Das planned that the minor disciple, whose residence was not known to people other than the victim, would disappear with the booty after the crime while he would stay back so that nobody suspects him.
Ankit Das believed that he would have collected his share of loot from the minor at a later stage and replaced the victim as an assistant priest. “The minor accused, however, was arrested from Lucknow when he was on his way to Shahjahanpur, and he spilled the beans, after which Ankit Das was arrested,” he said.
Notably, this is not the first such incident reported from Ayodhya As many as five saints were killed in the past 10 years over the same reasons and their disciples or people familiar to them turned out to be their killers, said police.
MURDERS IN AYODHYA
JAN 2023 Nonagenarian Mahant Ram Saran Das of Nar Singh temple had mysteriously gone missing, and his disciple Ram Shanker Das was accused of murder. But later, the disciple was also found dead in May this year.
APR 2022 Mahant Baba Kanhaiya Das of Hanumangarhi’s Basantiya Patti was murdered and his ‘Guru bhai’ Akhilesh Das and Golu Das were arrested. This murder was also a fallout of wealth and property issues.
AUG 2018 Mahant Ram Charan Das of Vindhya Mata Mandir was strangled to death in a dispute over his successor. The police arrested two of his disciples in the matter.
AUG 2014 Mahant Vijay Ram Das of Ganga Bhawan temple, part of Maniram Das Chawni Temple Trust, was found murdered. His disciple was arrested for the murder over wealth and property.
JUL 2013 Another seer Ramesh Das, a disciple of Mahant Bhavnath Das, was arrested in connection with the shootout between two groups of mahants (priests) in which a labourer was killed near Hanumangarhi temple.