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Updated: Apr 28, 2020 16:59 IST

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray spoke to his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath over the killing of two sadhus in UP’s Bulandshahr and expressed concern over it. Thackeray called for strict punishment for the perpetrators of the “heinous” crime and said that the incident should not be given a communal colour.

“I spoke to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ji over the phone and expressed concern over the heinous murder of two sadhus in UP’s Bulandshahr. I told him that we are with you. Just the way we acted strongly in such a case, I wish you would do the same and bring the accused to justice. However, I appeal to you that the incident should not be given a communal colour,” Thackeray said.

Adityanath had spoken to Thackeray after two sadhus were lynched in Maharashtra’s Palghar district earlier this month. The Maharashtra home department had subsequently booked over 100 people in connection with the case.

While the BJP leaders suggested that the killing was intentional, the state government dismissed any communal angle in the Palghar lynching incident.

Sena leader Sanjay Raut had earlier tweeted on the killings, warning against giving it a communal twist. “Terrible! Killing of two saints, sadhus at a temple in Bulandshahar, UP, but I appeal to all concerned to not make it communal the way they tried to make Palghar, Maharashtra incident,” Raut said.

The bodies of the two sadhus were found inside a temple in a village in Bulandshahr on Monday night. The police arrested Murari alias Raju in connection with the murder of Jagdish or Rangidas, 55, and his 46-year-old disciple Sher Singh. The man told the police that it was “God’s will”.

“The accused claimed during interrogation that it was the will of God meaning there was no personal enmity,” a senior government official said while speaking to reporters.

Officials said Raju allegedly had an altercation with the sadhus over stealing their ‘chimta’ or tong.