Dharamnath’s night of 'tandav'; Sanand 'Sadhu' turns murderer

The two youths, Rajdeep Vaghela and Mahavirsinh Jadeja, who escaped death at the hands of the murderous priest, Dharamnath, are still in a state of shock. All that they can say when asked about the incident is that Dharamnath was horror personified when he attacked people sleeping on the premises of a temple located Iyava village of Sanand taluka.

Dharamnath, the deputy of the head priest of the temple, was never considered a threat by the 1200 residents of the village. Villagers always thought that he was harmless. He was allegedly under the influence of ganja when, on Sunday morning, he attacked some people sleeping on the temple premises. Out of the eight people he attacked with an iron rod, four were asleep at the time. All the four died on the spot.

The villagers said that Dharamnath used to get the charas and ganja from other sadhus who visited the temple regularly.

Dharamnath was never a good priest but the villagers respected him only because he looked after the Mahadev temple in the village. "He regularly smoked ganja and charas and, most of the time, was quarreling with devotees who came to the temple," said Mahavirsinh Jadeja, one of the surviors.

Dharamnath used to sit silently for hours without talking to anyone. He would scold someone for no reason and start talking normally with him soon after.

"His behavior was not normal. But because he was a priest, we never complained about him to anyone," said Rajdeep Vaghela, another survivor.