The police said that there was an incident of theft in the temple. (Representational)
A 52-year-old priest hanged himself on Wednesday allegedly after being accused of theft in a temple in the Rajasthan's Barmer district, police said.
Bhimdas, a priest at Raghunath Ji temple, went to work as usual on Wednesday morning and after performing prayers closed the doors of the temple and hanged himself inside, Samdari SHO Dawood Khan said.
A suicide note was found near the body of the priest, he said.
In the note, Bhimdas wrote that he killed self as he was hurt by accusations of theft levelled against him by the people of a particular community, police said.
The priest wrote that he did not commit the theft and was being defamed by certain people, police said.
The family of the priest has been worshipping in this temple for three generations, they said.
Mr Khan said that there was an incident of theft in the temple late Monday night.
Some people of a particular community accused the priest of committing theft.
After the allegation, the priest was interrogated by the police but no case was filed against him.
A case has been registered against five people under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code, Mr Khan said.
The people were booked on a complaint of the priest's brother Dwarkadas who alleged that his brother was falsely accused by some people and that drove him to suicide.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)