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Afghanistan/South Asia
New murder mystery grips India's top temple
2005-01-21
MADRAS: Another battered body was found Thursday at one of India's leading temples whose chief priest has already been accused of murder, police said. A milkman discovered the corpse of 40-year-old Srini Acharya in a pool of blood from a head wound at the Vishnu Uttaradi Mutt, a lodging house for pilgrims at the 2,500-year-old hermitage at Kanchipuram. The Vishnu Uttaradi Mutt is part of the Varadaraja Perumal Temple complex, where a 52-year-old former employee who had alleged financial irregularities was stabbed to death in September.

Jayendra Saraswathi, the most powerful of Hinduism's four chief priests, spent two months in detention on suspicion of murder, criminal conspiracy and suppression of evidence over the death of his one-time aide. The Supreme Court released him on bail January 11 but barred him from returning to the temple complex west of Madras. Saraswathi's high-profile detention had rocked the Hindu establishment and sparked mass media coverage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha asking her to ensure investigations against a "person of his eminence" are conducted "with extreme care and consideration." She has publicly stated that the evidence against the priest's involvement in the first murder is "shocking but solid". Saraswathi's hermitage controls assets worth more than 50 billion rupees (1.14 billion dollars). Police said the latest victim, Srini Acharya, had called in a colleague to look after the lodging house since he planned to return home Thursday to Bihar state after his mother died. A police spokesman said the latest murder may be linked to complaints by Acharya against locals encroaching on land owned by the lodging house.
Posted by:Fred

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