VHP tries to keep row over seers’ murders alive

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had slammed the Maharashtra government over the killing of a Lingayat seer in Nanded. Now it has come to light that Lingayat sage Pashupati Maharaj along with another person was murdered by a petty criminal, who had entered the Ashrama for stealing things. Arrested accused Sainath Lingote (27) also belongs to Lingayat community.

VHP on May 24 submitted a memorandum to the local administration on the Nanded killing while its spokesperson Vinod Bansal said, “Had the murders of seers in Palghar hanged, the Nanded killers would not have gathered the courage to do so.”

After three people including two seers were killed near village Gadchinchale in Palghar on April 16, VHP said Hindu seers were in danger in Maharashtra. Home Minister Anil Deshmukh denied a communal angle to it, but the BJP and VHP alleged a Christian-Communist nexus behind the murders and sought a CBI probe.

134 persons including a dozen tribals have been arrested for the Palghar killings. However, the VHP reminded the Thackeray government that it is “now 38 days” and sought more action.

On April 28, two seers were killed in Bulandshahar. The murderer turned out to be a drug addict who killed them inside a temple after the priest scolded him for stealing his belongings. In the third week of April, another seer was attacked in Hoshiarpur in Punjab. The police ruled out a communal angle.