Refugees at a camp in Udalguri in Orissa. (PTI)

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 6: As the CID crime branch investigation into the death of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati progresses at a snail’s pace, Naxalites and Hindu outfits have begun a blame game with their conflicting versions of the “truth”.

On Sunday, top CPI(Maoist) leader Sabyasachi Panda on behalf of the group, claimed responsibility for the swami’s murder.

Today, Hindu Jagaran Samukhya, an outfit under the aegis of Sangh Parivar, alleged that the swami’s death was a “pre-planned conspiracy executed by the church”. They also rubbished the Left-wing claim.

Two men were arrested today in connection with the murder of the swami.

These are the first arrests after the murder.

Panda’s interview with a select number of channels revealed that the rebels were irked by the way the swami would “reconvert” tribals to Hindus, creating intolerance in the society and oppressing minorities. “We had issued several warnings to him to stop his action, but he did not pay any heed. Thus, it became necessary to eliminate him,” Panda said.

Today, the state unit president of the Hindu Jagaran Samukhya, Ashok Kumar Sahu, alleged that the decision to eliminate the swami had been taken at a general body meeting of the Parish Council held at Betikola Catholic Abbey in Kandhamal on May 25.Sahu even circulated copies of the meeting proceedings that read: “As according to the command of our bishop, it was decided to offer those (who indulged in Satanic activities opposing our expansion) as sacrifice at the altar of the Lord”. Reportedly the “proceedings” also mentioned a date — August 23 — as the date for the execution and mentioned a decision to conduct a victory celebration after the successful completion of the task.

Sahu said the photocopies of the meeting minutes were handed over to chief minister Naveen Patnaik on September 9 by VHP international president Ashok Singhal during his visit to Orissa.

Christian organisations have vehemently denied the allegation. “It’s a cooked up story. They have fabricated the document. No church or a Christian could think of committing such an act. The church never had any evil intention against the swami,” said Asit Mohanty, the regional co-ordinator of Global Council of Indian Christians.

Talking to The Telegraph, director-general of police M.M. Praharaj declined to comment on the outfit’s claims, rather pointing out the rebel angle. “We had suspected the Naxalite angle and now the link would be established,” he said.

Praharaj confirmed that three persons were arrested from Tumudibandh area today by the crime branch police in connection with the incident. Four guns and masks were also recovered from them. The accused were produced before the sub- divisional judicial magistrate’s court at Baliguda in Kandhamal today.

On his part, home secretary T.K. Mishra is satisfied with the pace of progress of the CID investigation. He claimed that a special team constituted to exclusively deal with the case has made “significant progress” in the case.

Meanwhile, the Orissa government today appointed higher education secretary M.S. Padhi as the special administrator for Kandhamal.

Padhi will supervise the settlement of land disputes, verification of fake caste certificates and implementation of developmental programmes in the district, as spelt out in the special package announced by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.