The news of 15 people dying of poisoning and over 120 hospitalised after eating prasad at a temple in Karnataka, had shocked the whole country. Now cops have revealed that it was a local seer and three others who conspired to kill devotees to defame the management and take control of the shrine. The accused have been already arrested.
Police say 15 bottles of pesticides were added to the prasad while it was being prepared. The 52-year old seer and his three accomplices — a woman, her husband and his friend — have been charged with murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, senior police officer KV Sharath Chandra said.
“Mahadeshwara Hill Saluru Math seer Pattada Immadi Mahadeshwara Swamy or Devanna Buddhi connived not only to take over the temple trust but also to defame the existing trust members,” he told reporters in Chamarajanagar.
Primary investigations revealed that an internal rift between two of the temple factions could possibly be the reason behind the crime. Sources claimed two factions had formed within the management committee — one led by Seer Mahadevaswamy and Manager Madesh and the other was led by Trust members Chinappa, Neelakantha, Shivanna.
Seven people, including those from the temple trust committee, were named in the FIR filed under section 304 of the IPC. It has come to light that the prasad was allegedly poisoned with pesticides.
A newspaper report quoted IG (Southern Range), Karnataka, K V Sharat Chandra as saying that it has been confirmed in forensic test that there was presence of an organo phospate, called monochrotophos, in the prasad. “The tests have not revealed the quantity of the insecticide that was present in the food,” he said.
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