After Palghar, two sadhus strangled to death inside ashram in Maharashtra's Nanded

Mumbai: A body of a seer (sadhu) was found inside his ashram in Maharashtra's Nanded late on Saturday night, news agency ANI reported. The deceased sadhu has been identified as Balbrahmachari Shivacharya and his body was found at his ashram in Nanded’s Umri Taluka late last night. Notably, the police also found another body, said to be of his accomplice Bhagwan Shinde from the spot. 

As per the latest development, the police has arrested an accused, Sainath Shingade, in connection with the case.

As per reports, bodies of both the seers have been found inside the ashram near the bathroom of the house.

The police suspect that the accused had entered the Mutt with an intention to steal. The criminals looted Rs 69,000, laptop and other valuables from the victim's bedroom totalling around Rs 1.50 lakh, besides his car keys. As Shivacharya tried to grapple him, they strangled him and his accomplice to death with a charging cable. The accused later tried to escape from the scene by hiding the corpses in a car trunk. They sped off in the monk's car but ended up crashing at the main gate of the ashram. Hearing the crash noise alerted the people around after which around 8-10 inmates ran outside and saw the attackers jumping onto a two-wheeler and speeding off into the darkness. 

Meanwhile, tension has gripped the area following the double-murder at the Mutt.

In view of the sensitivity of the incident, Nanded Superintendent of Police Vijaykumar Magar said around five crack teams have been formed and fanned out into the district to nab the absconding criminal.

The police also found that the suspect used to have meals and even stay at the Mutt sometimes. On the other hand, the seer was a well-known mahant of the district and was involved in the development work of the area for a long time. Hailing from Karnataka, he had come to Nanded a decade ago and set up the ashram which he ran along with a band of followers.

The incident comes more than a month after two sadhus and their driver was lynched by a mob in Palghar's Gadchinchale village while they were on their way to attend a funeral in Gujarat's Surat amid the nationwide lockdown. The incident that took place on the night of April 16, had attracted nationwide outrage.