Bilaspur (Yamunanagar), August 22
The mahant of the famous Hanuman temple, “Panchmukhi”, was found murdered in his room on the temple premises at Basatiynawala village in Bilaspur town, 20 km from here, today. The deceased has been identified as Bal Mukund Dass.
One of his students found his body tied with a bed. The victim had also been gagged. He is suspected to be strangled to death allegedly by a rival group following an old dispute over rights to run the affairs of the temple.
Police sources said late last evening four mahants from Hoshiarpur had met Dass and allegedly strangled him to death early this morning.
Acting on a complaint of Vijay Das, a student of the victim, the police has registered a murder
case against 19 persons, including four mahants from Hoshiarpur. The police has started investigating the case, but no arrests have been made so far.
Police sources said the mahant entered into a dispute with the rival group here in January. He had left for some unknown destination on January 1, following which another mahant had taken the charge of the temple. However, he returned on January 15 and claimed his right.
Thereafter, claiming their rights, the two groups approached the administration, which appointed a receiver to settle the dispute. A case regarding the rights of temple is also pending in the court.
Meanwhile, the naib tehsildar had been appointed supervisor of the temple and the mahant had also been looking after the affairs of the temple, said a senior administration official.
Tension mounted when Dass was taken to the cremation ground near the temple here. Aggrieved with the police, a large number of people alleged that the mahant had approached the police a number of times for security as he had been facing a threat to his life. Even two days ago, he had requested the police to provide security.
A large number of police personnel was deployed in and around the temple to avoid any untoward incident. All senior officials, including Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Agarwal, SP Vikas Arora, SDM HC Jain and DSP Mukesh Kumar, visited the site to check the situation.
