Man Hangs Himself Dead Inside The Church In Lira District

Police in the northern Ugandan city of Lira are looking into the circumstances surrounding a man’s reported suicide in a Hindu temple where he was working as a casual worker.

According to the authorities, Deogratius Opio’s body was discovered hanging in the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple in Lira City East Division on Wednesday about 6 a.m.

Opio, who worked as a cleaner and caretaker at the shrine on Agora Road in the Junior Quarters, was identified as the deceased.

Some of the witnesses questioned by the police, according to SP Jimmy Patrick Okema, spokesman for the North Kyoga Regional Police, claimed that Opio purchased soda bottles on June 6, 2023, and split them with a cook and a security officer “requesting to be remembered.”

Later that evening, when the cook and the guard had left for their posts, he went into the gate’s security room, where he had been resting. The people who were in the shrine were unable to find Opio around 6am.

Unusually, they observed that the temple grounds had not been cleansed. They began looking for him as a result of this. Later, they found his lifeless body hanging from the temple’s roof, close to the water tanks, Mr. Okema stated in a news release on Wednesday.

Later that evening, when the cook and the guard had left for their posts, he went into the gate’s security room, where he had been resting. The people who were in the shrine were unable to find Opio around 6am.

Unusually, they observed that the temple grounds had not been cleansed. They began looking for him as a result of this. Later, they found his lifeless body hanging from the temple’s roof, close to the water tanks, Mr. Okema stated in a news release on Wednesday.

He said that the 50-year-old Richard Aporo, a corporate security business supervisor and inhabitant of Anai ward in Lira City West Division, was the one who filed the police report.

The scene was examined by the district police commander, the officer in charge of the criminal investigations department, and a group from the homicide section.

The scene of crime officers (SOCO) meticulously photographed and documented the area after reviewing the CCTV footage from the temple. The postmortem on Opio’s remains was performed at the mortuary of Lira Regional Referral Hospital, according to Mr. Okema.

He claimed that as part of the ongoing investigation, statements were taken from the reporter (Mr. Aporo) and the temple’s owner.