Priest kills 4, hangs self in Sanand

In a shocking incident early on Sunday morning, the priest of a temple in Iyova village of Sanand taluka in Ahmedabad district battered four people to death and then committed suicide by hanging himself.

Police said the priest, Dharam Nath, was either under the influence of hemp (ganja) or was mentally ill as he had committed the crime without any apparent motive.

Earlier, on Saturday, around 15 people, including youths from the village and sadhus from the temple, got together to make prasad (food offering). The prasad was to be offered to Lord Bhairavnath on Sunday morning at the Neelkanth Mahadev temple in the village.

Later in the night, four of the sleepers were killed and four seriously injured when Dharamnath, the deputy of the main priest, Somnath, attacked the sleeping men with an iron rod. The incident occurred between 5 and 5:30 am on Sunday.