A temple priest died after being set on fire by five people over a land dispute in Rajasthan's Karauli district, police said on Friday.

The five accused allegedly poured petrol on Babu Lal Vaishnav and set him on fire in Bukna village on Wednesday. He was referred to the SMS hospital in Jaipur in a critical condition. Vaishnav succumbed to injuries on Thursday night.

The priest had about thirteen bighas (around 5.2 acres) of land which belonged to the Radha Krishna temple trust in a village in the district. But the land was given to the head priest to till as a source of income. Lands like these, which belong to temple trusts, are generally given to caretaker priests for their use in return for the fact that they perform the pujas and carry out rituals in village temples.

Such lands are called "Mandir Mafi " and are a source of income for priests who are caretakers of village temples in Rajasthan.

The priest, wanting to build a house for himself, had the land levelled by an earth-mover to which a group of people from the dominant Meena community objected to and claimed the land as their own, reported ndtv.com.

The dispute was taken to the village elders who ruled in favour of the priest.

The priest then went ahead and placed bales of his newly harvested millet as a sign of ownership but the accused allegedly started building their own hut on the land that the priest had levelled, said ndtv.com.

This led to an altercation. The priest, whose statement before the police has been recorded, said six people poured petrol on his bales of bajra (millet) which were lying at the disputed site and set it on fire on Wednesday. He claimed they also poured petrol on him and tried to set him on fire.

Suffering burn injuries, the victim was rushed to Jaipur's SMS Hospital where he died on Thursday evening.

Senior police officer Harji Lal Yadav told NDTV, "The post-mortem is being done right now of the body. We have registered a case of murder and we have also taken the prime accused, Kailsah Meena, and an accomplice into custody."

Vaishnav's family members have demanded action against the SHO, investigation by a deputy rank official, compensation and government job to a family member.