Priest who committed suicide for rebirth cremated

"A three-day "miracle" drama in Chhattisgarh's industrial town of Raigarh ended on Monday afternoon after a Hindu priest, who had committed suicide promising to return to life within 72 hours of his death, was cremated.

Hundreds of people had laid siege around the body of 25-year-old Manoj Baghel, who ended his life on Saturday by consuming poison at a temple in Raigarh, about 200 km northeast of state capital, Raipur. Baghel had claimed that he would come back to life.

"The miracle drama is now over as the people, who had surrounded the body of the dead priest to witness the rebirth, handed over the corpse to the police for post-mortem on Monday afternoon," Superintendent of Police in Raigarh, J K Thorate said."

IBNLive.com, Dec 24, 2007

Back to the drawing board... or not.