Murdered Hindu priest led double life -- Police

Murdered Hindu priest led double life -- Police
REUTERS

LONDON, OCT 24: Police hunting the murderer of one of Britain's leading Hindu figures said on Monday he led a double life and they were probing his links with the gay community.

Hindu priest Harish Purohit was found dead with multiple stab wounds at a house owned by his family in Leicester, the home of Britain's second largest Hindu community after London.

"One of our lines of enquiry is within the gay community," said a Leicestershire police spokeswoman.

Superintendent Bryan Warraker told a press conference: "We know that he led a double life, he had a happy domestic home life but also had a separate social lifestyle."

He said the Kenyan-born social services manager was found in a pool of blood on Saturday by his father and brother. A post-mortem showed he had been stabbed 13 times.

His brother Janardan Purohit said the 42-year-old priest was well-known and loved by Hindus in Britain and across the world.

The last official census put the number of Hindus in Britain at about 140,000.

Police said they were conducting a forensic examination of Purohit's house, and had found his car, which had been missing when the investigation started. They said they were working on about 100 lines of enquiry.