The incident took place in a village in Karauli district, about 177 km from Jaipur.
Jaipur:
The Rajasthani priest, who died Thursday evening from burns suffered after being attacked by a group of men following a land dispute, was cremated on Saturday after his family gave in and authorized the final rites.
Police also detained two people in connection with the crime and three others were named in an FIR (first information report).
The family members had refused to perform the final rites until all of their demands were met by the state government. Their demands included compensation of Rs 50 lakh and government employment.
“All the accused must be arrested and action must be taken against the Patwari (tax officer) and the police who support the accused We want protection, ”Lalit, a relative of the priest, Babu Lal Vaishnav, told the ANI news agency.
Earlier today, Karauli District Deputy Magistrate Om Prakash Meena rushed to the priest’s village to persuade the family to hold the funeral. “We ask the family to perform the last rites because two days have passed since the death,” he said.
A BJP delegation led by Jaipur MP Ramcharan Bohra also met with the priest’s family today and echoed their demands to the state congressional government.
The priest had about thirteen bighas (about 5.2 acres) of land which belonged to the Radha Krishna Temple Trust in a village in the district, but which was given to the chief priest to cultivate as a source of income.
However, this land became the source of a dispute in Karauli in Rajasthan, about 177 km from Jaipur. Babu Lal wanted to build a house on a piece of land near his land, which is bordered by a small hillock. In order to begin construction, he had the land leveled by an earth moving machine.
However, a group of people from the dominant Meena community opposed this and claimed the land as their own. The dispute was brought to the village elders who ruled in favor of the priest, but the defendants reportedly started building their own huts on the land the priest had leveled.
This led to an altercation. The priest, whose statement to police was recorded, said six people spilled petrol on his bajra (millet) bullets that lay at the disputed site and set it on fire on Wednesday. He claimed that they also poured gasoline on him and tried to set him on fire.
Suffering from burns, he was rushed to SMS Hospital in Jaipur where he died Thursday evening.
Senior police officer Harji Lal Yadav told GalacticGaming: “The autopsy of the body is underway. We have registered one murder case and we have also taken into custody the main defendant, Kailsah Meena.”
The six people named by the priest in his statement to the police are Kailash, Shankar, Namo Meena and three others.
