In yet another incident of temple desecration and sacrilege, dozens of Hindu god and goddesses idols were discovered to be desecrated in a temple at Kailash Vihar Pansari in Begumpur, Delhi. The incident happened on the night of November 24 at the Shiv Shakti temple in Begumpur. The antisocial elements mainly separated the head from the torso of all the Murtis installed in the temple, left it behind and fled.
The idols which were destroyed included those of Lakshmi Narayana, Krishna-Radha, Durga Mata, Bagalamukhi Mata Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati, Lord Ganesha and Kartikeya.
When OpIndia learnt about the incident, it got in touch with Vibhuti Sharma, the trustee of the temple. Sharma informed that he lives 500 meters away from the temple. Confirming the incident, Sharma said when the lady who cleans the temple every day, reached the Mandir at around 7 am on November 25, she noticed that the Murtis in the temple were vandalised. She immediately informed Sharma about the incident, who in turn informed the police.
Sharma said that the police have lodged an FIR against unidentified miscreants under sections 457 and 295 of the IPC and started investigating the case.
According to the trustee, the administration assured that they will give them new idols to install in the temple. According to him, the broken idols have been immersed in the water yesterday, but the administration has not yet given them new idols and the temple which until now housed so many idols remains empty.
The trustee said that the locals saw a boy running in the area on the previous night of November 24. The locals confirmed that they heard him screaming “sar kaat diya…sar kaat diya” (beheaded…beheaded), but no one could see his face. The trustee said that the doors of the temple generally remains locked at night, but unfortunately on the night the incident happened, the door was mistakenly left open and the culprits took advantage of the situation and vandalised the idols in the temple.
When asked about the CCTV cameras installed in the area, the trustee informed that CCTVs were installed on the street by the Aam Aadmi Party govt, but when the incident happened and the authorities checked the CCTV cameras they found that the DVR of the CCTV was broken 3/4 days ago.
Condemning the sacrilege of idols, Vishwa Hindu Parishad national spokesperson Vinod Bansal shared a video of the Mandir which is now empty. Bansal said that the miscreants broke the head of all the Murtis and left it behind. He called it a vile attempt to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.
दिल्ली के बेगमपुर के कैलाश बिहार पंसाली का शिव शक्ति मंदिर तो है किंतु अंदर भगवान नहीं?? दुःख तो यह कि शैतानों का अभी तक कोई अतापता भी नहीं। सोचिए! ये देश की राजधानी है!!#BhagwanBeheaded pic.twitter.com/ssb9tZOfwJ
— विनोद बंसल (@vinod_bansal) November 26, 2020
दिल्ली के बेगमपुर थानांतर्गत कैलाश बिहार पंसाली में शिव शक्ति मंदिर में लगभग दर्जन भर देवी-देवताओं का सर कलम करने वाले विधर्मी दुष्ट का दूसरे दिन भी कोई अतापता नहीं। हिंदुओं की सहिष्णुता की कृपया और परीक्षा ना ले @DelhiPolice @LtGovDelhi @ArvindKejriwal जी।#BhagwanBeheaded pic.twitter.com/ItC3WFq1oD
— विनोद बंसल (@vinod_bansal) November 26, 2020
Bansal said that though the police authorities have lodged an FIR, limited sections of the IPC have been invoked and moreover no arrests have been made so far. Saying so, the VHP leader demanded a strict and speedy investigation into the case.
An FIR No. 400/20 was registered by @DelhiPolice yesterday but covering very limited sections of IPC. No arrest hv yet been made for #BhagwanBeheaded ?? https://t.co/nZWEJDGUFu pic.twitter.com/moXE77VUpJ
— विनोद बंसल (@vinod_bansal) November 26, 2020
Past incidents of Temple desecration and sacrilege
This is, however, not the isolated incident which has occurred in the recent past. Temple Desecration occurs far more frequently than we would like to imagine. Prior to this incident, there was a similar attempt to hurt the sentiments of Hindus in Mewat, Haryana. On the occasion of Navratri, merely two days after Durga Maa’s idol of consecrated in a temple in Mandikheda village of Nagina block of Mewat, antisocial elements completely dececrated the idol. The locals had accused the Mufti of a madarsa near the temple.
Moreover, in last year’s Hauz Qazi incident, which left an irredeemable scar on the psyche of Hindus all across the country, 300-400 people belonging to the Muslim community barged into a Hindu colony at the midnight of June 30 in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk – abusing and threatening the residents and desecrating their temple while raising Islamic slogans. Mobile-shot videos that emerged the next day showed a crowd chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Naara-e-Takbeer’ while proceeding to vandalise the 100-year-old Durga temple located at the colony’s entrance. The incident had stirred communal tensions. For several days, the area resembled a militarized zone due to heavy security.