This was a small victory, but a hard-won, lonely one. In the process, they have been alienated, assaulted and disillusioned about all that they once held dear.

Twenty-four-year-old Jatinbhai's forehead wrinkles in concentration as he describes how he single-handedly took up the cudgels against the coterie that governs the 400-odd cash-rich Swaminarayan shrines all over the country.

``I remember, I M Desai, then the superintendent of police, Kheda, slapped me for 10 minutes in full public view in front of this very temple on May 5 last year. My only fault was that the day before, I had lodged a case about my guru's disappearance at the Chaklasi outpost, saying I suspected the involvement of some temple officials.''

But even police cognisance did not come easy. ``For 10 days, Gadadharanandji's nephew Kapilji, and another of his followers, Prabhutdas, staged a sit-in, that was ignored by the police and the Press. The strength came from Vadtal village sarpanch Ramanbhai Parmar and other villagers'', says Jatinbhai.

Kapilji and Prabhutdas, listening silently to Jatinbhai's outburst, join the conversation only to say the going has been tough for them. So much so, that they apprehended threats to their lives, and cut down on their movements and monitored their statements till the case went to High Court, which eventually handed it over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Tears fill Jatin's eyes as he pronounces, ``These so-called sadhus kidnapped and killed my guru just because he would not join their game of corruption''.