KATMANDU, Nepal: Police in Nepal are searching for five missing followers of a spiritual leader who is believed by devotees to be a reincarnation of Buddha, officials said Monday.
Ram Bahadur Bamjan, also known as Buddha Boy, became famous in southern Nepal in 2005 when many believed he was able to meditate without moving for months while sitting beneath a tree with no food or water. He remains popular despite accusations of sexually and physically assaulting his followers.
Uma Prasad Chaturbedi of Nepal’s Central Investigation Bureau said police raided three of Bamjan’s camps and are keeping him under strict surveillance as they search for the five missing people.
Chaturbedi said jungle areas near the camps were dug up after they received information that bodies might be buried there, but none was found.
The families of the five missing followers have filed cases with the authorities seeking to find them.
Bamjan has thousands of followers who visit him in his camps, believing he is a reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal roughly 2,500 years ago and became revered as the Buddha. Buddhist scholars have been skeptical of the claims.
Nepal police search for 5 missing followers of ‘Buddha Boy’
Nepal police search for 5 missing followers of ‘Buddha Boy’
- Ram Bahadur Bamjan became famous in southern Nepal in 2005 when many believed he was able to meditate without moving for months
- Bamjan has thousands of followers who visit him in his camps, believing he is a reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama
British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ pleads guilty to 1999 murder
- Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court
LONDON: A British serial killer dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media after he killed five young women two decades ago pleaded guilty on Monday to another murder from 27 years ago.
Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court and admitted kidnapping and murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.
Wright, 67, also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the day before Hall’s murder. He will be sentenced on Friday.
“Justice has finally been achieved for Victoria Hall after 26 years,” Samantha Woolley from the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.
Wright was convicted in 2008 of the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, northeast of London in Suffolk. Wright left two of the bodies in a crucifix position with arms outstretched.
He was give a whole-life order, meaning he could never be released from prison, for what the sentencing judge described as “a targeted campaign of murder.”
Wright had consistently denied the allegations even though his DNA was found on three of the victims and bloodstains from two of them were found on his jacket at his home. His victims’ bodies were found in the space of just 10 days around Ipswich.
