Monk's death case: Police custody of accused extended

Mumbai, Jan 16 (UNI) A local court today extended till January 23 the police custody of all those arrested in connection with the death of a Buddhist monk here recently.

While seeking an extended custody, the prosecution told the court that investigations are yet to be completed and, hence, further custodial interrogation of accused is necessary.

Earlier, builder A S Lakdawala's counsel H H Ponda told the court that his client is ready to cooperate with investigating agency and, so, he be granted conditional bail.

But, additional chief metropolitan magistrate T P Turoshe rejected the defence plea and extended the police custody of the accused till January 23.

Lakdawala, Dr Vivek Kolekar, Arun Kamble and Manohar Jadhav were arrested by the police on January 10 as their names figured in the First Information Report (FIR). They have been accused of murdering Buddhist monk Buddha Bhante Bhadhant Sanghraj on January 6.

The 75-year-old monk was found hanging from the ceiling of his home at Gautam Nagar in Deonar here. A complaint against the builder and the others was lodged by Nandbodhi Boddha.

It is suspected that the monk, who was an executive member of the ''Boudh Vihar Committee'', was involved in a dispute with the builder over a piece of land belonging to the Boudh Vihar.

UNI ST MAZ KK RS1845