JAIPUR: A temple priest was burned alive by five defendants for property dispute in the area of Karauli’s Sapotra Police Station. The defendant allegedly threw gasoline and set it on fire Wednesday morning. The victim succumbed to burns on Thursday night in Jaipur. Police arrested the main defendant in the affair while four others were searched.
The victim was identified as Babulal Vaishnav, 55, while the accused was identified as Kailash Meena. The incident is from the village of Bukna in Karauli, where Vaishnav was the priest of the Radha Gopal temple.
Mridul Kachawa, SP Karauli told TOI, “There was a dispute over the land and the victim’s dying statement was that Meena threw gasoline on him and set him on fire. A total of five defendants have been named and we have formed teams. to find the other defendants. ”
According to officials, another version of the incident is that the priest set himself on fire, but his statement before he died against the defendant is considered sacrosanct and a murder case under section 302 of the IPC has been recorded against the defendant.
In his statement, the victim said that he and his family cultivated 15 bighas of temple soil that the defendant had apparently been trying to illegally seize and on Wednesday morning around 10 a.m., Meena along with four other people arrived the victim’s house, then they had an argument. During this time, Meena allegedly threw gasoline at the priest and set him on fire.
Sources told TOI that the land dispute had also reached the village panchayat, who had asked Meena not to interfere and to let the priest continue to live there. Following the priest’s death, protests broke out across the state and people from the Brahmin community were agitated in front of the SMS hospital, where the victim took his last breath. BJP leaders also attacked state government and former CM Vasundhara Raje took to Twitter to say that the graph of crime in Rajasthan continues to grow. He also said that the congressional government should wake up from its slumber and ensure that the culprits are punished.
On video: Shocking: priest of a 50-year-old temple burned down in Karauli, Rajasthan
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