Amidst infighting, K’taka temple's trust head allegedly hired priest to poison prasadam

Himmadi Mahadeva Swamy allegedly contracted the priest Doddaiah, who was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly confessing to the police.
Amidst infighting, K’taka temple's trust head allegedly hired priest to poison prasadam
Amidst infighting, K’taka temple's trust head allegedly hired priest to poison prasadam
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After the tragic deaths of 15 devotees who consumed poisoned prasadam at a temple in Chamarajanagar, the police have finally unraveled the plot involving rivalry and infighting within the trust that owns the temple.

Investigators probing the harrowing incident say that a priest has confessed to mixing insecticide in the food, which was distributed as prasadam.

On Tuesday, police arrested Doddaiah, a priest from a village close to Sulwadi, after he allegedly confessed to the crime. Doddaiah revealed that Himmadi Mahadeva Swami, the head of the trust, had allegedly hired him to carry out the deed. The Rampura police had previously registered an FIR against seven people in connection with the crime.

“The temple was generating a lot of revenue. The trust is headed by Himmadi Mahadeva Swami of the Saaluru Mutt. He and his cronies within the trust planned the whole thing in order to defame their rival faction in the trust,” an investigating officer said.

The plot

The Sulwadi Kicchu Maramma Temple is owned by a trust. However, its trustees were divided on various matters, which had led to the formation of two factions: one with Himmadi Mahadeva Swami and his cronies, V Madaiah and the temple manager Madesh; and the other faction with Khajanchi Neelakantha Shivacharya, the assistant manager P Gurumallappa, the secretary Shashibimba, trust members Chinnappi, P Shivanna, H Lokesh and N Keshavamurthy.

Himmadi Mahadeva Swami

Police say that the temple’s finances were steadily increasing and Himmadi Mahadeva Swamy had been allegedly pilfering funds. This angered the trustees of the other faction.

“Chinnappi, Neelakantha and the others opposed Himmadi Mahadeva Swami pocketing all the money. They demanded that proper books be maintained. Chinnappi also began auditing the temple’s finances. This did not bode well with himmadi Mahadeva Swami,” an investigating officer said.

In the October this year, Himmadi Mahadev, Madaiah and Madesh decided to construct a new gopuram for the temple. Himmadi Mahadeva had allegedly contracted the job at the cost of Rs 1.2 crore to his associates.

“When the other members of the trust found out, they were not happy about it. The trust had only Rs 34 lakh left and a Rs 1.2 crore project was too much to handle,” the police added.

Chinnappi and the trustees in the other faction allegedly obtained a new contract in December at a much affordable price, and had decided to organise a ceremony to mark the first day of the gopuram’s construction.

When Himmadi Mahadeva Swami found that he could not control the members of the other faction, he allegedly decided to retaliate and defame Chinnappi and the others.

“The plan was to mix the insecticide in the cooking water. Once the people ate the prasadam and would fall sick, then Chinnappi and the other trustees would be defamed. This way, the Swamiji could take control of the trust,” the police said.

When Himmadi Mahadeva received an invite for the ceremony, he immediately contacted Madesh and his wife Ambika, and allegedly hatched a plot to poison the prasadam. The duo were responsible for procuring the insecticide. Madesh and Ambika allegedly handed over the insecticide to the priest Doddaiah of the Nagarcoil Temple in a nearby village.

Ambika

On the morning of December 14, Doddaiah allegedly came to the Kicchu Maramma Temple in Sulwadi. When he arrived at the temple’s kitchen, he saw that the food was already prepared.

“Doddaiah arrived at the temple. When everyone was at the ceremony, he went into the kitchen and mixed the insecticide in the pulav. Not knowing that the food was poisoned, Chinnappi and his son Lokeah distributed the food to the devotees,” the police added.

As news of the tragedy spread, Doddaiah rushed to KR Hospital in Mysuru, claiming that he had stomach ache. The doctors at the hospital did not notice any of the symptoms of organophosphate poisoning in Doddaiah. Hence, his blood sample was collected and sent for testing. Doddaiah, meanwhile, was resting in ward number 12 of KR Hospital.

"The blood work came back on December 17 and that's when the doctors knew that Doddaiah was pretending to be ill. Soon we were informed and Doddaiah was arrested. He confessed to the crime after questioning," the police said.

 

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