Lucknow, Sept. 15: A visiting sadhvi from Odisha has accused two employees of a temple in Mathura district of sedating and gang-raping her, and alleged that the shrine authorities and local police had warned her against raising a stink.

Although the alleged attack at the famed Radha Rani temple in Barsana took place on Monday night, it came to light only last evening when the woman monk approached senior superintendent of police Swapnil Mamgai.

Investigating officer Virendra Singh said the CCTV footage, collected on Mamgai's instructions, corroborated the allegation."The footage shows a man forcibly carrying the woman from the hall of the temple where she was sleeping to an attached room. Another man is seen helping him."

He said the police had identified the accused as temple watchman Kanhaiya Yadav and cook Rajendra Thakur alias Panga. Yadav was arrested this evening but Thakur is in hiding. "It appears the victim lost consciousness after one of the accused forced her to smell some sort of chemical."

He added that the 40-year-old sadhvi from Bhubaneswar understands Hindi but speaks only Odia.

A source in the district police quoted the sadhvi as saying that the temple authorities had threatened to throw her out of Mathura if she went to the police, and the Barsana police had rebuked her for "maligning" the temple.

The woman later confided in a man she had come to know a few days earlier, and he encouraged her to meet the district police chief.

"This incident is a blot on our reputation," said Krishna Murari Goswami, the temple receiver (an official appointed by the government to look after a temple's management).

"We need to evolve a foolproof mechanism for the security of women at our temples. We have suspended the two employees and lodged a police complaint against them."

More than one lakh devotees and monks, half of whom are women, come to Mathura from across the country every day to visit the district's 5,000 temples.

The Radha Rani temple, also called the Laadli Mahal or Shriji temple, is a shrine to Radha, the lover of Krishna. According to folklore, Radha was born in Barsana, 440km west of Lucknow. Mathura is 40km west of Barsana.

A group of youths had allegedly tried to rape a sadhvi in the Gahwaran area of Barsana last week before running away with her belongings. They are yet to be caught.