Missing Buddhist monk found buried

KAPILVASTU, FEB 10 -

The body of a Buddhist monk, who had been missing for the past two weeks, was found buried at Tilaurakot-4 in the district on Sunday.

A police team exhumed the body of monk Suryamangal at a dried-up well. The 86-year-old monk had been missing since January 26. Suryaman Bajracharya of Kapilvastu Municipality-2 became a monk some two decades ago and was staying at Gautam Buddha Shanti Vihar, the residential building of monks at Kapilvastu-12.

Police said Shanti Loniya, an attendant and fellow nun at the Vihar and her family members were behind his murder. Shanti and her family members have been living in the the Vihar for about 20 years. 

Police Inspector Chandra Dev Kamati told the Post the preliminary investigation showed that Shanti and her family killed him and buried his body in the well.

Police reached the site as per the statement of Badri, Shanti’s son and the kingpin of the incident. 

It took about two hours for the security team to exhume the decaying body. The body was handed over to the family after carrying out post-mortem.

Police arrested Shanti, Badri and five other family members in connection with the incident.

According to a police officer involved in the investigation, the suspects admitted that they killed the monk in the Vihar on January 26 and buried his body at night in the well which is around 600 metres from the Vihar.

The incident came to light after Suryamangal’s son Rajendra came to the district searching for his father and lodged complaint against the Loniya family on February 5. The monk was living there alone while his family members are in Kathmandu.

The monk had a dispute with the Loniya family recently over the ownership of the Vihar. The monk had also complained with police saying that the Loniya family was hatching conspiracies to murder him.

During a discussion held at the local police office recently, the Loniya family had agreed to leave the Vihar in a month while the monk had promised to provide them Rs 25,000 in cash and 25 corrugated zinc sheets.