Gurugram, Apr 20 (PTI) Two persons, including a priest, were arrested on Thursday for allegedly beating a 23-year-old man to death after he damaged an idol while cleaning it at a temple in Khandsa village here, police said.

The incident took place on Wednesday in Bani Wala temple, police said, adding that the priest and his two associates tied the victim to a banyan tree and thrashed him with sticks.

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According to police, the arrested accused were identified as priest Ajit alias Babaji and Sonu alias Seela. The third accused in the case, identified as Sonu Balhara, is on the run.

The body of the deceased, identified as Dinesh alias Raju, was recovered on Thursday afternoon from the temple premises, said police.

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An FIR was registered against the accused under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC at Sector 10A police station on the basis of a complaint filed by one Mahesh, a native of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, who is also an eyewitness in the case, they said.

The deceased was said to be a native of Nepal, said police.

In his complaint, Mahesh said that he was doing the work of installing tiles at the temple along with his co-workers for the last five days.

“On Wednesday, a man came there and started cleaning the idols. During this, the fingers of an idol were broken and the cleaner informed the priest who got angry and started beating him with a stick. Then he called two other people and they tied the man to a banyan tree and started beating him badly... When I reached the temple on Thursday afternoon, the man had died,” Mahesh said in his complaint.

After getting information, a police team reached the temple and arrested priest Ajit and Seela from the temple while Sonu Balhara managed to flee, an official said.

“We have recovered an Aadhaar card from the possession of the victim. The body has been sent for the postmortem. We are now trying to contact his family,” said Rajender Singh Dalal, ACP (City).

Two accused have been arrested while raids are being conducted to nab the third, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)