2 Sadhus Killed In UP Temple Allegedly By Man They Had Accused Of Theft

Bulandshahr: Two sadhus were murdered inside a temple at Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr on Monday night, allegedly by a man they had berated and accused of theft recently.
The sadhus, 55 and 35, were killed by a man called Raju, the police said. He has been arrested and charged with murder.

Last night, allegedly after taking bhang (cannabis), Raju went into the temple and killed the sadhus. He was found around 2 km from the temple, still high on drugs and in barely any clothes.

“The accused claimed it was the will of God,” said Ravindra Kumar, a senior government official.

“Raju said he had bhang and then came into the temple and murdered the priests. We asked him about reports he attacked the sadhus with a sword but the accused claims he only used lathis,” Mr Kumar told reporters.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked for strict action in the case, which comes days after the mob-killing of two Sadhus and their driver in Maharashtra, which exploded into a political controversy over allegation by a section that it was a communal attack. Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition denounced what it called attempts to whip up tension in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.

The Uttar Pradesh police have denied anything communal about the Bulandshahr killing. The accused man was still “high” and would be questioned when he was coherent, a police officer said.

“The two babas lived here at the temple. One person named Murai alias Raju, who belongs to a scheduled caste, took away a ”chimta” (tongs) for which he was scolded and abused by the priests. After the murder, villagers were looking for him and spotted him drugged with bhang,” a senior police officer, Santosh Kumar Singh, said.

The incident has drawn reactions from several political leaders, weeks after two sadhus and their driver were lynched by a mob in Maharashtra’s Palghar, allegedly over rumours that they were involved in the kidnapping of children for organs.

Many BJP leaders had alleged that the sadhus were killed on April 16 by design, but the Maharashtra government emphatically denied any communal angle. Yogi Adityanath dialed his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray and later told the media that he had called for strict action in the killing of the saints.

Leaders of Maharashtra’s ruling Shiv Sena tweeted on the UP killings, warning against giving it a communal twist.

“Terrible! Killing of two saints, sadhus at a temple in Bulandshahar, UP, but I appeal to all concerned to not make it communal the way they tried to make Palghar, Maharashtra incident,” tweeted Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted that the UP killings should not be politicized and the accused should be punished.