Showdown begins over successor to slain seer

Lucknow: A showdown seems imminent among the disciples over the successor to religious leader Swami Sadanand Sant Gyaneshwar who was gunned down in Handia on the Allahabad-Varanasi highway on Friday night.

Meanwhile, Padma, a disciple of the saint, committed self-immolation in the ashram in Barabanki as she could not bear the grief over the death of the seer.

The chief of the Sadanand Tatvagyan Parishad, Thakur Ram Sahay Singh, has claimed that the seer had nominated him as his true successor during his lifetime.

The seer and others killed in the shootout were buried in the ashram.

The seer had accumulated property worth several millions spread over Bihar, Baranbanki, Sultanpur and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and Uttranchal and also in Nepal.

Conspiracy

The police lodged First Information Report against Samajwadi Party MLA Chandrabhadra Singh and five others in the killings. The FIR was lodged with Handia police against the MLA from the Israuli constituency of Sultanpur district, his brother Brij Bhadra Singh and four others.

According to the police, they were charged in the FIR with murder and conspiracy in the shootout.

The seer was an accused in the murder of the MLA's father Indrabhadra Singh, who was an MLA from the Israuli constituency in Sultanpur district.

Police claimed that the raids were being conducted at various places to nab the assailants. The assailants took Gyaneswar's vehicle and fired indiscriminately, killing him and five others on the spot.