Jaipur, Aug 19 (IANS): The temple priest who set himself on fire in Jaipur on Thursday succumbed to his injuries on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. The Rajasthan police have so far arrested five persons in connection with the case, while two are still at large.
On Friday, the suicide note of the priest Girraj Sharma also surfaced which was handed over to the police by his family members. Sharma's son Janu Sharma said that he found the suicide note behind the idol in the temple.
The note says that a few people threatened him in the morning and the same evening a few miscreants had come to kill him with a knife and another sharp-edged weapon.
The priest wrote, "These facts were bothering me. I was serving selflessly for 25 years in the temple." In the suicide note, he also wrote the names of committee members Moolchand Mann, Shankar Joshi, Ashok Khandelwal, Samarmal Aggarwal, Ramprasad, Dinesh Dhariwal. He also mentioned about the fake election of the development committee.
Meanwhile, the family has refused to accept the body and have demanded financial compensation. The police were trying to convince the family members and activists of the protesting social organizations.
The priest's sister alleged that he had called her a day before committing suicide and said that a few people have manhandled him and hence he will have to die.
She said that she suggested he go to the police but he was quite depressed.
As per the officials, Giriraj took the extreme step owing to the dispute between temple committee members and him.
He was the priest of Laxmi Narayan Temple located in Shankar Vihar and lived in the temple premises with his family. It is alleged that the members of the temple committee wanted to forcibly remove the priest. Hurt, the priest set himself on fire at around 5 a.m. on Thursday.
He was being treated at Sawai Mansingh Hospital in Jaipur, however he passed away on Thursday midnight.
He is survived by his wife, 5 daughters and 2 sons. The last rites will be performed amid tight security.