Drug addict held for friend and sadhu’s murder in Nanded district

A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his friend and a sadhu (seer) in Nagthana village of Nanded inside an ashram early on Sunday. Sainath

A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his friend and a sadhu (seer) in Nagthana village of Nanded inside an ashram early on Sunday. Sainath Lingare, who is a drug addict, was arrested around eight hours later within the Tanur police station limits along the Maharashtra-Telangana border, the police said.

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According to the police, as per their preliminary inquiry, it has been discovered that Lingare wanted to break inside the ashram and steal money and had asked his friend Bhagwan Shinde, 50, to be an accomplice. When refused to be an accomplice in the crime, the accused strangled the victim and dumped his body in the ashram’s bathroom. He then entered the room of the sadhu, Swami Rudra Pratap Maharaj, 33. When the seer woke up, Lingare threw chilli powder in his eyes, which he had carried with him, and before the victim could raise an alarm, the accused strangled him, the police said.

“Lingare then dumped Maharaj’s body in a car and tried to flee but his vehicle dashed into the ashram gate. Hearing the noise, the other sadhus, who were sleeping on the ashram’s terrace, came down, said Anantre,” said inspector Ashok Anantre of Umri police station at Nanded.

Lingare had parked his friend’s bike at his home near the ashram. He took the two-wheeler and managed to flee.

The others in the ashram informed the police about the murders, following which they began investigations. “We had alerted the police in the neighbouring districts and shared Lingare’s picture with them based on eyewitnesses’ statements. Around 4pm, Lingare was nabbed from Tanur area, Vijaykumar Magar said, superintendent of police, Nanded district, said.

“Lingare is a resident of Nagthana village and is a drug addict. He was charged for murder around 10 years ago, but he was a minor then. He had killed a man along with his father. He also has a case of car theft against him” said police inspector Ashok Anantre of the Umri police station.

During the inquiry, we learnt that Lingare and Shinde had met each other at a zilla parishad school, around 700 metres away from the ashram.

Lingare has been booked under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 452 (House-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal code (IPC).

“We are trying to ascertain how much money has he robbed from the ashram,” said Anantre.