Pragyaraj, Oct 3: In a shocking development, a 45-year-old priest, Mahendra Mani Tripathi, was brutally murdered near the Ram Janki temple in the trans-Ganga area under the jurisdiction of Nawabganj police station on Monday morning. After strangulating him to death, his hands and legs were tied with a towel behind his back.
This crime came to a light after Ramnath Yadav, a college peon of IKM PG College, arrived at the temple. He witnessed that the idols within the temple had gone missing, and the priest, Tripathi, was conspicuously absent. Further, he saw the dead body of the priest of Ram Janaki temple. Tripathi’s hands and feet were bound, and his mouth had been forcibly gagged with cloth.
A probe was ordered in which it was revealed that Tripathi was strangulated, with no apparent signs of physical injury found on his body.
Assistant commissioner of police, Shailendra Kumar, reassured the community that all possible angles in the case were under scrutiny, and efforts were underway to swiftly identify and apprehend the perpetrators responsible for this heinous crime.
The sources also said that the body has been sent for postmortem examination. "The matter is being investigated".