Hyderabad: Tension prevailed in Airport Colony in Shamsabad after some idols of the Hanuman temple were found vandalised on Tuesday morning. RGIA police said the incident came to light after a devotee, who had come for darshan, found the some Navagraha idols desecrated.
“Out of the nine Navagraha idols, five were found broken and the remaining four, though not broken, were damaged,” the locals who came to the temple told the media.
At 6 am, when the priest was busy performing purification rituals on the Hanuman idol in the sanctum sanctorum, a devotee came to him and informed him about the damage to Navagraha idols, which are outside the main temple structure.
When the priest joined the devotee, Shankar, they found the damaged idol. They went around looking for the culprit, but found no one. They then shared the information with the temple management and local politicians, who in turn called the police,” said the RGIA police.
The police reached the spot and cordoned off the area. On hearing of the damage, locals began to gather at the temple. Anticipating protests, a large number of policemen were deployed to secure the area.
The locals suspect a vagabond who has been taking shelter near the temple. However, there’s no proof as there are no CCTVs at the location. His whereabouts were unknown after the incident. Later, locals tracked him down and handed him over to the police. The stone allegedly used to damage the idols was recovered from the spot and will be sent for forensic examination.
The police registered a case under Sections 333 (trespassing after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 298 (defiling place of worship with intent to outrage religion of any class), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the BNS.
“After questioning the suspect, we found that he is not mentally sound. For the past six months, he was taking shelter near the temple,” an investigator told TOI.
“The main temple was locked, but since Navagraha was outside the main structure, the accused had access to it,” police said.
