Two priests beheaded in Madhubani

PATNA: Two priests of a temple were killed at Khirhar village under the same police station area in Madhubani district late Tuesday night.
Police said the incident took place around midnight when the victims, identified as Heera Das (70) and Anand Mishra (50), were fast asleep on the Dharohar Nath Mahadev temple premises.
Though Heera of Siriyapur village and Anand of Bhagwanpur were not regular priests of the temple, they used to stay there to take part in the rituals.Chief priest Narayan Das, an eyewitness to the incident, told police that one Dilip Choudhary of Harlakhi village attacked the two priests with a spade and slit their throats. He dumped the beheaded bodies under haystack.
Das informed the Khirhar police station about the incident after Choudhary left the scene of crime. Police later recovered the bloodstained spade from Choudhary’s house. “While the bodies were recovered and sent for postmortem, the severed heads were found close to the boundary wall of the temple,” police said.
SHO Anjesh Kumar said the accused was absconding after the incident.
Das said Choudhary used to attend the morning and evening prayers at the temple. However, the number of devotees had reduced drastically due to restrictions on religious places these days. Das also said he did not muster courage to intervene for fear of his life. “I watched the entire incident from a room in which I was sleeping,” he told the investigating officer.
Some locals said Choudhary is mentally unstable.
Circle inspector Rajesh Kumar said raids were on to arrest the culprit.
Unconfirmed reports said police nabbed the accused in Basopatti village. Madhubani SP Satya Prakash later visited the spot and inquired about the incident.