A sadhu has been shot and critically wounded on a village temple’s premises in Gonda district, allegedly by the panchayat chief and his henchmen who are accused of trying to grab the shrine’s land.

Mahant Samrat Das alias Atul Baba, one of two sadhus who officiated as priests at the Ram Janaki temple in village Tirre Manorama, was attacked around 2am on Sunday while sleeping in a room at the temple.

Doctors at the King George’s Medical University in Lucknow, where he is fighting for his life, said he had been shot in the left side of his chest.

A case has been registered against panchayat chief Amar Singh and three others on a complaint from the temple’s other priest, Mahant Sitaram Das, who too is a sadhu.

“The panchayat chief and three other members of his caste had been pressuring us for a long time to hand over the entire 120 bighas on which the temple stood,” Sitaram, the head priest, told reporters in Lucknow.

A case had been filed in a local court laying claim to the temple land on behalf of the four accused.

Sitaram said Amar and his men had for the past two years been preventing devotees from visiting the temple, which was now virtually defunct apart from the two sadhus performing daily rituals.

“We filed a complaint two years ago but the local police did nothing,” Sitaram said.

However, state police authorities in Lucknow did provide the sadhus with security after they complained of threats from the accused, Sitaram said. Sitaram got one armed and one unarmed constable and Samrat got an unarmed home guard.

Sitaram said he, Samrat and the security personnel were sleeping in different rooms at the temple when, around 2am on Sunday, the sound of “commotion” woke him. “I then heard a gunshot and rushed to the spot,” he said.

“Samrat Das lay blood-splattered. He told me on the way to the district hospital (from where he was later referred to King George’s) that Amar Singh and his men had been there and one of them had shot him point-blank from a pistol.”Gonda superintendent of police Shailendra Pandey said: “We have detained two people from the village and are interrogating them. The other two, including the panchayat chief, are in hiding.”

The temple belongs to the Tapasvi Ki Chhawani math in Ayodhya. Its patron is senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and former BJP parliamentarian Ram Vilas Vedanti.Vedanti said: “We knew there was a land dispute involving the temple. The matter is in court. I’m sure the government will not tolerate an attack on a sadhu.”

At least four sadhus have been murdered in Uttar Pradesh in the past six months.

Two unidentified sadhus were found drowned on September 24, one in a pond at village Tikri in Baghpat district and the other in a canal in Meerut. The police said the bodies bore injury marks. The case remains unsolved.

On April 28, sadhus Sewa Das and Jagan Das were bludgeoned to death while asleep. A drug addict has been arrested in village Pagauna, Bulandshahar district.