3 men have been arrested for vandalising a murti in Tamil Nadu. Ajeez, Sirajuddin and Veera Gautam were apprehended by the police for vandalising the Amman murti in a recently renovated temple.
Devotees of the Amman temple in Xavier Palayam in Dindigul district were shocked to find a Amman murti in a vandalised state on October 27. The temple was renovated and the consecration ceremony was conducted only a few months ago. Two Amman murtis were placed on either side of the entrance. In the morning of October 27 one of them was found broken.
Upon investigation it came to be known that some people had intentionally vandalised the murti the previous night. The temple management filed a complaint with the local police. Police found that Ajeez(22), Sirajuddin (25) and Veera Gautam(24) were the ones who vandalised the murti. All three have been arrested and police are investigating the reason behind their action.
On October 23, a day before Deepavali, a fidayeen type terror attack was carried out near of a temple in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Since then police force has been reportedly put on alert to avert repeat of such incidents to avoid communal tensions flaring up. Yet temple and murti vandalism and desecration continues as the perpetrators are either booked under simpler sections or termed as mentally unstable/inebriated and let off.
A Muslim man had set fire to a temple chariot in the past and accepted in a video that he was the culprit and would do it again if he gets the chance. Yet he was let off as police said that he was mentally unstable.
This “Veera Gautam” may be a convert. Using his pre-conversion name. I can’t imagine a Hindu desecrating Amman Murti.